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Facebook reviews are now driving e-commerce. Customers are always looking for reviews and validation from fellow customers before completing the purchase or the desired action. Any business must be smart enough to manage the Facebook reviews, and shrewd enough to use the positive reviews to amplify business. Here Retaliate1st list their tactics on amplifying your positive Facebook reviews.

3 Ways to Profit from Facebook Reviews

  1. Facebook Comments Can Be Deleted

If you are receiving negative comments, you can either:

  • Respond to them (positively – fighting in your comments section will harm your reputation)
  • Delete them

The main advantage to getting a negative comment is that you can remove it and block the user. If it’s a legitimate bad review, you should respond.

If it’s a former employee, competitor, or just a whacko who loves to troll, then delete.

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  1. Reviews Can Not Be Deleted

Anything left in the actual review section of your Facebook cannot be deleted. This is done to protect the consumer, as every business would simply delete all non-positive reviews.

But, don’t fret, this is actually a good thing, especially if you have overwhelmingly positive reviews.

If you don’t, then ask your customers to review you on Facebook. Everyone and their mother (literally) has a Facebook account, so getting them to leave a review doesn’t take much action on their part. You should link them to your page to make it as easy as possible. Ethical bribes are ok in this situation, too.

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The more positives you have, the less impact the negatives hold.

What do you do when someone drops a 1-star review plus negative text?

Respond to the review. Publicly invite them to contact you. You don’t have to admit mistakes. A simple, “We’re sorry to hear you are having an issue. Please contact us at 888-888-8888 and we’ll help you.”

Why Facebook Reviews Are Critical

It’s simple, direct, doesn’t admit that you’ve done something wrong, and most importantly, it shows other customers that when there’s an issue, you jump on solving it. No matter how web-savvy we become, there is still a pervading fear of being ripped off online by a business that takes our credit card payment and skips town.

Responding with an invitation to contact helps quell these fears.
What about if the negative review keeps on the offensive?

Continue to remain calm and invite them to resolve the issue with you. If they continue to push, they end up looking bad while you show yourself to be a trustworthy business that handles even the harshest of your critics with grace.

  1. Cultivate More Reviews

The best thing you can do is cultivate as many reviews as possible. As discussed above, link your page in email to your customers and ask for a review.

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Offer them a gift card, discount, free info, or something they’ll like in exchange for a review. Note: in exchange for a review, not a positive review. This is an important distinction with the FTC.

With most experts predicting that Facebook reviews will soon surpass Yelp as the go-to review site (Yelp’s bizarre strong-arm tactics are becoming well known to consumers, they were even parodied on South Park recently), now is a great time to start the review building process.

When it comes to marketing on Instagram, you can subscribe to a lot of theories on what works, but the one common thread among all marketers, and the research, is that your Instagram campaigns live and die with the quality of your Instagram photos.

Better Instagram photos = more views, more likes, more engagement and more sales.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at 3 ways to improve your marketing on Instagram, through better Instagram photos:

How To Improve Your Instagram Photos

  1. Use Your Phone’s Native Camera App

Using your phone’s camera is a better option than using Instagram’s camera. This is especially true if you have a newer version of the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, both of which come with powerful cameras.

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Why is your phone’s camera better than Instagram’s?

  • You can take photos without filters
  • You can edit photos much more easily, and much more quickly, in your phone’s native camera app and editing software
  • You can set your phone’s cam to take pics that are 640 x 640, making them perfect for Instagram without having to crop
  • Most phones have more powerful zoom, clearer pictures, and better lighting
  • The free, or near-free, photo editing apps on smart phones are actually pretty powerful, and can help you enhance lighting, focus, remove red-eye, and make your IG pictures clear and eye-catching

Interesting Instagram Photos Excel

  1. Take Pictures of Interesting Things

This should be obvious, but we’ve all unfollowed a brand (or person) that insists on posting boring photos.
No matter what your product or service, there are opportunities to post photos of really dynamic content that will engage your followers.

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  • Before and after pics work well for weight loss products, home improvements, design, graphics, and clothing stores.
  • Photos of your product being modeled are always a safe bet. Research shows that including a human face in a picture of a product increase views (and sales). Have great clothes you’re selling? Put it on a model that is a slightly idealized version of your customer and do a photo shoot. One shoot can give you a strong catalogue of content.
  • Cool places – if you are an adventure traveler, restaurant, or you sell lifestyle, pictures of nature, especially breathtaking views, always perform well on Instagram
  • Food – we all love to look at pictures of food. If the pictures are bright, clear, and the food is colorful. This should be a no-brainer for restaurants. But, next time you’re on Instagram, check out how many clothing and watch dealers use food in their photo shoots. Elegant coffee displays are the focus of a picture, but the watch on the wrist of the woman with her hand poised on the cup is the real draw.

Instagram Photos Of People Are Most Liked

  1. Use Instagram Photos of People

This can be applied to using models, or taking pictures of your staff having fun, working, or doing interesting things.

instagram-photos

Remember, Instagram is simply another marketing channel. No matter where you’re selling, people want to buy from people, not faceless corporations. This is why product images featuring faces do so well. It’s also why any marketer worth a damn will tell you to include pictures of your staff on your website’s About page. Put a face on your Instagram and your brand identification (and sales) will grow.

Instagram has become the go to platform for millennial and Generation’s Z and Alpha. As the younger generations become the dominant spenders and marketing shifts towards them, platforms such as Instagram will increase their advertising revenue. This makes it a must for growth hackers to master. Retaliate1st have built multiple Instagram accounts into the millions of users and here we list our 5 ways to increase leads and sales using Instagram.

5 Ways to Increase Leads and Sales Using Instagram

  1. Picture Quality is Number 1

No matter what your business or service is, remember that picture quality is to Instagram marketing what headline strength is to print advertising.

You are competing with some high-quality photos on Instagram. Your business needs to stand out. Bright pictures out-pull darker hued shots.

Pictures with blue and light blue as the dominant color pulled 37% more likes than those set in other tones.

  1. Tell Your Story First, Market Second

Instagram marketing is still relatively new. Users and advertisers alike are blazing new territory. But, one rule that’s accepted by everyone is: no one likes in-your-face marketing in their feed.

It’s been said that Google ads are like a carnival barker, Facebook ads are like having a conversation on your front porch and anyone who walks by and is interested by the conversation is welcome to wander up and join in. Well, Instagram is more like telling a few friends about these gorgeous new shoes you bought, whipping out your phone, and showing them pics. They love them, and want to know where you got them.

Mastering the Instagram Feed

You can do this in your feed and with your ads. Simply tell your story through your visual content (pictures and video) and your captions. Most products will sell themselves if the pictures are of the highest quality. Now you just need to give followers a reason to click (free, sale, exclusive content, etc.)

  1. Track Traffic with Short Links

Measuring ROI on social media can be difficult at times. Measuring traffic from Instagram to your site shouldn’t be hard.

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Full links are harder to track than shortened ones, so consider services like bit.ly or TinyURL when posting links in your feed. They’re easier to track, and easier to read for your customers.

  1. Don’t Blow the Bio

Your bio page will get picked up on Google for searches you’re not even thinking about. Instagram is a huge site with a lot of traffic. Load your bio with useful information, and how it can benefit your customer, then link it to a landing page that captures user info. You won’t build a business overnight with this method, but over the long term you’ll attract a lot of leads that would’ve otherwise been lost.

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  1. Use Video – But Not Exclusively

Video, if done well, will capture more attention than pictures. It also allows you to bring your copywriting to life, giving your visitor a visual and auditory tour of your product or service.

But, don’t rely on video alone. Despite what cell phone companies’ commercials tell you, not everyone is walking around with an infinite supply of 4G service. Video can be slow to load, eat into data, and simply not work when your user is low on bars.

Don’t lose a customer because they became frustrated with a feed full of videos that they can’t watch.

Mix in pictures with the same message so you attract those who couldn’t connect with you in your video content.

 

For a small or medium business, using social media marketing can become overwhelming and frustrating. There are multiple platforms to choose from and some are clearly not right for your business. Figuring out return on investment can be tough, since most social media marketing doesn’t operate on a dollars-in v. dollars-out model. Converting likes into sales can be a multi-step process, and is best viewed in the long term.

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If you are unsure of how to get your social media marketing on track, check out these 4 tips. They’ll help you get started, or if you’re already going but find your efforts going in circle, these can help right the ship.

4 Ways Make Social Media Marketing

  1. Editorial schedule

If you are using typical social media marketing and networking sites like Facebook, Pinterest or twitter, you need to plan, carefully, what type of content you are posting. Keeping a simple schedule of what was posted, where & when & what type of content, is key. If you have a social media team, have them keep track of this – anything from spreadsheets to old-fashioned notebooks are fine for tracking content flow on social media.

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Scheduling not only helps you keep track of potential ROI, but it will help you re-purpose content, using it multiple times on multiple sites (even changed slightly), which breathes new life into your content marketing and ensures that all content is exposed to the maximum audience.

  1. Simplify

If you are overwhelmed, it is a sign that too much is going on. It is important to simplify. When in doubt, back off, check your content schedule and start again.

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  1. Stats

What is measurable can be improved and measuring metrics on social media can be tricky. Luckily Facebook offers excellent info in their “insights” section and it helps you track likes, reach, click-through rate, engagement, etc. If you are running ads on social media then these stats can help you measure real ROI.

  1. Free Help

Social media marketing is still fairly new and the game changes quickly. This is exciting for young marketers and finding interns to help with your social media campaigns is not difficult. Still-in-college marketers are hungry for experience and social media is time consuming. Bringing an intern or two on board can help you ramp up your production without costing a ton of money.

If you’ve tried Facebook ads before, but got very little results, you’re not alone. The early versions of Facebooks pay per click platform was stiff, counter-intuitive, and downright maddening. But, the improvements that’ve made has turned the once-frustrating marketing platform into a gold mine for business owners.

  1. Learn to Use Both Ads and Boosted Posts

If you are a small to medium sized business owner, don’t overlook the power of boosted posts. While pay per click ads are still more popular, the changes to the “boost” platform has made it a powerful way to reach potential customers.

  • Boosted posts allow you to promote content on your site, other social media accounts, or on your Facebook page
  • Boosted posts reach a large, very specific audience, instantly
  • Boosting posts is a great way to promote sales and events quickly, without wasting money

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  1. Define Your Audience

Google’s PPC platform is enormous, much larger than Facebook’s. However, Facebook blows away Google when it comes to the ability to create hyper-targeted ads.

If Google is throwing a huge net into the sea, pulling in any fish that swim by, Facebook ads are like putting your lines in specific sections of the water, with a specific bait, catching just the right fish to satisfy your hunger.

With Facebook you can target:

  • Gender, age, education, income level, location, family status, language, ethnicity, home ownership status, and much more
  • Interests, hobbies, recreational activities, where your customers shop, which brand of credit cards they hold, as well as where they shop, which gyms they go to, and their political leanings
  • Connections: those that have already liked your page and their friends, those who like pages or businesses similar to yours, those who attend events related to your business, and more

Facebook

Facebook Lookalike Audiences

Facebook also allows you to develop, and market to, “lookalike audiences.” You take your current customer information from your database, then upload it to Facebook, which will help filter it further (using a third-party data broker), delivering you a new subset of audience based on those who’ve purchased from you previously. This method is a bit advanced, and is best viewed as a way to extend your best audience, giving your ads extra mileage. But, save this for after you’ve become a fantastic Facebook ad creator and can craft killer boosted posts.

Most business owners fall into one of two categories: those love and embrace social media, and those who loathe the very mention of it.

It can be confusing for the small, local business owner because the articles that spew the virtues of social media are seemingly never-ending.

The Social Media Landscape

The Social Media Landscape

The truth is, traditional Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc.) methods won’t generate enough leads to support your business.

But, having a presence, even a small one, on these sites is an absolute necessity.

Why?

  • It Puts a Face on Your Business – This is becoming increasingly more important both online and off. Study after study have shown that people want to do business with other people, not faceless corporations. Interacting with people on Facebook or Google + is a perfect way to make your business real and relatable. 64% of Twitter users and 51% of Facebook users are more likely to buy the products of brands they follow online. (https://www.aabacosmallbusiness.com/advisor/15-social-media-statistics-every-business-needs-know-001509118.html)
  • It Powers Up Your Home Shows – If you use home shows, trade shows, or any other large event to generate leads, there is no better place to promote them, and link your company to the big shows, than on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
  • It Makes You Likable – Getting “Likes,” comments, or shares is now being used as a signal of credibility by Google in their search results. It’s not a huge impact, but it’s an increasingly important part of the puzzle. Interaction with your customers makes you more trustworthy to Google, and helps your site move up in the rankings.
  • It Adds Credibility with Your Customers – We all want to be with the in-crowd. More likes, shares, and “friends,” leads to more trust. If most of your competitors have 200-followers on Facebook, and you have 5,000, potential clients pick up on this. It’s subtle, but it has a huge impact on making you appear trustworthy because there’s strength in numbers. Studies show that over 50% of consumers have based their decision to buy on a recommendation from their social network.

If in doubt on what social media channels to use, you can always refer to the Ogilvy Guide on how to use social media:

Ogilvy's Guide To Social Media

Ogilvy’s Guide To Social Media

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