“The total number of worldwide email accounts is expected to increase to over 4.3 billion accounts by year-end 2016. – Radicati Group
Employees spend 13 of their working hours each week in their email inbox (on average). – McKinsey & Company
92% of online adults use email, with 61% using it on an average day. – Pew Research”
Statistics found on https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/01/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/
With the recent changes in Facebook’s algorithm, you may want to re-consider using a group to reach your A-list clients to build community with them. This article from Social Media Examiner details why and how. As Mari Smith says in the article “People love to belong.” A group gives you a tool to create that feeling for your clients.
Email subscribers are 3 times more likely to share your content via social media than visitors from other sources. – QuickSprout
72% people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media. – MarketingSherpa
Including a call to action button instead of a text link can increase conversion rates by as much as 28%. – Campaign Monitor
Email marketing drives more conversions than any other marketing channel, including search and social. – Monetate
Statistics found on https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/01/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/
Here is the most powerful take-away from this excellent article –Like many companies, Intel learned the hard way that third-party platforms “are a place to harvest an audience, not build it,” as Luke puts it. Intel “invested a lot of money to build up our fan base to 25 or 30 million,” only to discover that its organic reach was a puny portion of that total: 2,500 or so.
“Mark Zuckerberg is your landlord,” Luke says, referring to Facebook’s control of its audience. “He will change your rental agreement when he wants, and you can’t do much about it.”
Originally, the iQ team measured content success in terms of social engagement: the number of shares, comments, “likes,” and retweets.
Today, the iQ team follows a push-pull distribution model. “Just because you build it doesn’t mean that people will come,” Deb says.
Luke advises, “Push content to where people are discovering it, where they are. But don’t stop there. Pull them in to your own sites and your own infrastructure, and then convert them into email subscribers, harvest more data, get smarter about what kind of content they want to consume.”
THIS is successful marketing! This is relationship selling.
Out of every 100 domains registered in the U.S., 22 of them will be run on WordPress. Considering that an average of 120,000 domains are registered worldwide per day, it’s safe to say that WordPress is growing by leaps and bounds.
That “18.9%-of-all-website” figure is increasing all the time.
WordPress.com records an astonishing 126M unique visitors per month, while Amazon falls quite a ways behind, clocking in at 96M uniques per month.
I just received this email from Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner.
Did you see my post yesterday about not using your personal page? He reinforces that.
He also nixes using groups.
There is good advice regarding videos too. Read on!
Hello Pamela!
It’s Mike Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner emailing with an important analysis.
In this email I will outline (comprehensively) the new Facebook News Feed changes, what they mean for your future marketing, and what you can do now about these changes.
Before I share my analysis, let me share that I have been tracking the News Feed updates for almost two years. I have extensive feedback from our community. I also have our own research from thousands of marketers.
This change WILL impact you. Here’s what you need to know:
On January 11th, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s CEO) said that Facebook’s mission is to bring people closer together.
He went on to say, “but recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content–posts from businesses, brands, and media–is crowding out the personal moments.”
Mark then dropped the bombshell, “Based on this, we’re making a major change to how we build Facebook.”
Then Facebook’s Head of News Feed (Adam Mosseri) outlined the coming changes. Adam also made a public interview and posted in media groups (which I belong to).
Some refer to this change as Facebook Apocalypse and others as Facebook Zero.
What I will bring you below are the facts, as presented by Adam.
Fact 1: Adam said, “space in News Feed is limited.”
Fact 2: “We’ll show less public content, including videos and other posts from publishers or businesses,” he said.
Fact 3: “Pages may see their reach, video watch time, and referral traffic decrease,” said Adam.
My opinion: It’s been my experience that historically they have said, “may or may not.” I interpret this may as a “will.”
Fact 4: “Over the next few months, we’ll be making updates to ranking,” said Adam.
Mark clarified, “We started making changes in this direction last year, but it will take months for this new focus to make its way through all our products. The first changes you’ll see will be in News Feed.”
My opinion: I’ve heard reports from people in our community that they are already starting to see a different type of experience. I anticipate a wide scale change as early as February.
So here is what we know so far:
#1: Video will get less watch time. Inference: you’ll see less video in the News Feed.
#2: Links to external pages will get less visibility. Thus, they won’t be showing as many links to blog posts, news, and so on.
Now at this point, you might be wondering, “are you kidding me?” You might be thinking, “how could it get any worse?”
I have more data to share. Here we go.
#3: ALL posts from people and pages will be impacted. In Facebook’s News, Media, & Publishing group (which I belong to), Adam said the following, “The update applies to all post types, from pages and people.”
So if you’ve been thinking, “I use my personal profile. This doesn’t apply to me,” think again.
If you’re thinking of starting a group and hoping that will allow your posts to be seen, that’s not the solution. Those are still posts from people and the content itself is still subject to the News Feed algorithm.
So what are the important ranking factors?
Facebook will “prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people,” said Adam.
In a recent Wired Magazine exclusive interview, Adam said, “we’re going to be (weighing) long comments more than short comments,” and that “comments are more valuable than likes.”
So, actual “meaty” dialog between people (not pages and people, see the language distinction) is critical for News Feed exposure.
Now to video. Adam said, “video is, primarily, a passive experience. You tend to just sit back and watch it. And while you’re watching it, you’re not usually liking, or commenting, or speaking with friends.”
I believe this means a lot fewer shorter videos, a lot fewer Tasty-style how-to videos, and a lot fewer video animations.
At this point it should be very clear that your strategy has got to change.
I’m working my keynote slides for Social Media Marketing World 2018 and have given a LOT of thought to what the next steps are for us marketers.
I’m going to lay out some of my first ideas below:
Step 1: Scale back your frequency of posts. Less is more here.
Step 2: Figure out how to create content that will get people talking to EACH OTHER, not just you.
Step 3: Up your live video game plan.
Adam said, “live videos often lead to discussion among viewers on Facebook–in fact, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos.”
Step 4: Avoid engagement bait. These are posts that encourage people to comment. Adam said Facebook will “demote these posts in News Feed.”
Step 5: Master Facebook ads: This will be one of the only reliable ways you’ll be able to drive traffic off of Facebook.
Step 6: Learn Messenger Chatbots: Moving conversations into Messenger and using bots will be a huge trend that will allow you to nurture leads and sell.
A lot of the above steps will likely require a complete shift in your current Facebook strategy. If it helps, share this email with your boss, clients, or friends.
And let me suggest a way to rapidly improve your Facebook strategy, live video experience, Facebook ads, and Messenger chatbot success.
Attend Social Media Marketing World 2018 starting on February 28th.
The Instagram community is growing. The Instagram tools are expanding. This article describes how to use a brand new feature: Highlights. It’s a tool to organize your photos as well as group them in a manner that’s helpful to your viewers.
How are you using Instagram today? What would you like for Instagram to do for you?
“I’m going to un-friend you on Facebook!!” 
This is not meanness. It is a strategy to address the changes in Facebook’s algorithm. (See my earlier posts on 01/16 and 01/12 if you aren’t aware of this HUGE change.) Or read Facebook’s explanation when it pops up on your News Feed.
I’m cleaning up my Personal Facebook profile.
· Un-friending business connections.
· Inviting business connections to Like my
Business Page.
· Eliminating 99% of my business posts from
my Personal Page.
Facebook’s new algorithm wants to show more of friends and family posts on your Personal News Feed. So my business posts are going to weaken my chances of my posts getting in front of my friends and family.
Having business connections on my Personal Page is going to weaken my engagement on my Business Page. I want every possible Like, Share and Comment to be on my Business Page to improve my reach. So concentrating all business connections on my Business Page gives me the best opportunity to do that. It doesn’t mean I don’t love you anymore! It means I need your help to promote my business! PLEASE!
Facebook doesn’t notify someone when you un-friend them. Some people have add-on apps that tell them. You could send an email to your contacts asking them to move from your Personal Page to your Business Page. Give them the link to the Page in your email. Make it easy for them!
FB does give you a way to invite Friends to become Likes on your Business Page. You can’t customize the message though. It will just be the standard FB message. If you need help doing that, call me. I’ll walk you through the steps.
When new people ask to become Friends, I’m going to email and ask them to become Likes instead.
The algorithm change is going to impact you greatly. You need to take action now to up your game. This isn’t a disaster. It’s an opportunity!
This article from Social Media Examiner not only has recommendations, it has instructions on how to use the apps for specific problems.
This is “must read” material for those of you who use candid shots for your social media posts and blogs. Professional photography skills aren’t required. Whew! But worthy subjects and legible photos are. So one little tweak like removing the ugly wall plug on your photo can make a huge difference.
Take your photography to a higher level!