Social Media: How Important is it to Your Business?

February 18, 2016/0 Comments/in Blogs, Social Media /by Morgan Hirschi

Here at Infinite Reach Agency, social media is one of our top priorities! It is so important for any business to be able to reach their customers in an innovative and widespread way. For new businesses it is especially important, as it can help you increase business and get you established in your field. The power of social media is great and has the ability to reach far more customers.

Who Is Your Social Media Audience?

The first thing you need to know is who your target audience is. Who do you want to sell your service or product to? Are you aiming for a certain age demographic? Are you looking for a specific gender? Are you looking for people who engage in certain activities, athletics for example?

Defining your audience will help you choose the best platforms for your business. It will also help to ensure that you reach the customers who will be most interested in what you have to offer.

Social Media Platforms

Which Social Media Platform is for You?

Once you have determined who you want to reach with your social media, then you can start to see which platforms are going to work best for you. This will help you optimize your efforts and get your information out quickly. There are many social platforms; let’s go through three of the most popular ones:

Twitter is good for people who are on the go and just want your information to be simple, short and to the point. A quick update can send them to your site to find more details.

Facebook can help you reach more of a general and broader audience than some platforms because it has become so very popular. Businesses can share multiple photos of new product, write about happenings at the company and increase the traffic going to their site.

Another useful platform is LinkedIn. This site, originally for the working professional has broadened, but is still full of people looking to connect with other professionals and businesses. This is a great resource to spread the word about yourself and also to help your business to find potential employees, as well.

The Power of Social Media

The wonderful thing about promoting your business through social media, is that it is always available to the client or customer. Most everyone these days is connected to at least one platform, to stay connected and informed. It allows them to gather information about your business and your services without you lifting a finger. Essentially, social media brings the customer or client to you, saving you time and money. All of the information is at their fingertips!

By using social media and keeping current on your posts and updates, you can keep the customer’s interest and really show them what kind of business you have and what you have to offer them. Customers want to see what is new and exciting, and social media helps you to keep them in the loop and coming back for more!

For more ways to boost your online marketing, read Kristi’s blog, “Four Things You Can Do For Your Internet Marketing Now”.

mobile, user, facebook updates, infinite reach agency

Facebook Update Reduces Page Like Counts

March 18, 2015/0 Comments/in Marketing, Social Media /by Kristi Church

First–your’e not going crazy. Your Page Likes were higher yesterday or even last week than they are this morning–it’s okay. You’ve done nothing wrong.

Second–earlier this year, Instagram created an update that eliminated fake accounts which resulted in a huge drop in followers for celebrities like Rapper, Akon—who lost over 56% of his Instagram audience. It was a good thing—the actual followers that were left on IG were most likely there due to organic growth—not fake spambot accounts.

New Facebook Algorithm Is Here

In the next coming weeks, if you own a business Facebook page, you’re likely to see a small dip in the amount of “likes” your page has. In case you’re wondering why–it’s not because you posted something offensive or followers all of a sudden don’t like your page any longer. Community managers and admins work very hard to engage the right audience and grown Page Likes organically, but unlike the change on Instagram, this update isn’t about fake accounts, only those that are inactive.

As I mentioned in 4 Reasons Facebook Will Remain a Powerhouse in 2015, Facebook is always moving toward optimizing the user experience and this algorithm change is no different. They are removing two types of accounts from business Page Like totals; deactivated and memorialized accounts.

“To make audience data even more meaningful for businesses, we’re updating the way Page likes are counted by removing memorialized and voluntarily deactivated accounts from Pages’ like counts,” the company explained in a blog post. “This change ensures that data on Facebook is consistent and up-to-date.”

I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself that it might be a no-brainer that once an account was actually deactivated it would naturally be removed from your Page Likes—apparently not so.

This Facebook algorithm change is going to affect those deactivated accounts that are done so voluntarily, but that aren’t actually deleted from Facebook. Should the owner come back in and reactivate the account, the new Page Like will reappear. So, those wanting to step away from Facebook and come back later can do so undisturbed.

What to Expect

Most business Pages will only see a slight drop in Page Likes—possibly less than 2-5%. That’s not much in the grand scheme of things and this change actually keeps us all in the know and belief that those that are following our communities are there because they really want to see our content and care about the engagement we’re creating—which is GREAT!

About Us: Infinite Reach Agency specializes in advanced Facebook marketing through ad placement and daily social engagement. If you have questions on this topic or have questions on how to implement a proper Facebook ad campaign, contact us for a complimentary 30 minute consultation! We’re happy to help!

5 Ways to Increase Social Engagement on Saint Patrick’s Day!

March 16, 2015/0 Comments/in Social Media /by Kristi Church

At Infinite Reach, we happen to love Saint Patrick’s Day! For starters, we share the same love of green! With that said, Saint Patrick’s Day also presents an opportune time of year for marketers to step outside the box and do something different to drive audience engagement during a well-loved and celebrated holiday!

Here’s a few examples of how to create engagement with your followers for Saint Patrick’s Day!

1. Use Real-time Marketing

Take Guinness for example. In 2011 Guinness worked with UK marketing firm, PSONA, to create a 4 day long social media plan to engage their audience and make Saint Patrick’s Day The Friendliest Day of the Year.

The goal was to create a campaign across Europe that brought people together to share a virtual glass of Guinness until they could actually share one in person on Saint Patrick’s Day.

To do this new technology was created to make the process possible, putting Guinness and PSONA at the top of the list winning several awards for innovation and creativity.

Here’s the video case study:

Guinness Facebook Campaign – Case Study from Geronimo London on Vimeo.

We know that a campaign like this involved a team and months of planning and was well executed with a sizable budget. Just look at the results—180,000 comments and although I didn’t see this come across my social platforms, this spread to more than 20 countries. Talk about huge engagement! Their budget wasn’t spent on FB social ads—but rather on the app development. Interesting case study, indeed!

(INSERT RECORD SKIP HERE)

So you don’t have a large budget…and if you’re reading this you most likely didn’t plan ahead to use this holiday to find your pot of gold in social engagement. That’s okay, it’s not too late!

You can still use real-time marketing to do a photo contest on Instagram or Facebook asking your followers to post a photo of them celebrating the holiday with a chance to win a prize. Make it easy for them and if you have a fun prize worth winning your audience will engage!

2. Open Your Doors

It’s not too late to set up an impromptu Saint Patrick’s Day mini beer and corned beef fest and invite your clients and business partners over to your office for a fun get together before they head out to their favorite pub to celebrate.

Create a FB event with a stylized header and send out the invite. Then, create an email campaign and send out the invite and drive them to the event page to join. Don’t forget to make a few calls to personally invite those that you really want to attend.

Be sure to take photos and post them real-time to drive interest. You never know, a few more people might drop in making your little soiree the talk of the town!

3. I’m Feeling Lucky Campaign

I always feel lucky… I seem to have good parking and green light Karma although I don’t ever win the lottery. I guess there are trade-offs to everything! However, this is a perfect way to engage your audience on Saint Patrick’s Day!

Create a giveaway that goes with your brand or use a fun item such as an Irish themed t-shirt or necklace. Then create a Facebook header for your business that shouts “I have the Luck-of-the-Irish!” Ask users and followers to comment on the header image on why they have the Luck-of-the-Irish. For every comment, like and share they’ll receive 2 entries in the contest. Be sure to use the holiday hashtags to reach outside your current audience! #luckoftheirish #stpattys and then of course add your own company hashtag as well!

4. Make it Personal with Company Themed Images

Take a current photo of what your business is and drop that into Photoshop. Then overlay a rainbow and use a catchy phrase like:

“Temps are rising…do you feel lucky?

Clark’s Heating and Cooling is at the end of your rainbow!

Call us today!”

Thank you to Clark Heating and Cooling for use of this image!

5. Week of Luck Campaign

Sure, this year Saint Patrick’s Day lands on a Tuesday. That doesn’t mean you can’t share themed info all week! Find fun boards, trivia, games and day after themed photos to post. Take for instance the social meme at the top of this post. It was shared hundreds of times in social media last year. Again, don’t forget to reach outside your circle and find other followers by adding in those hashtags!

These are just a few of the many ways you can use Saint Patrick’s Day to drive social engagement. Hopefully, this post will help inspire you to feel the luck-of-the-Irish and jump on board on to create something worth growing your audience! Timing is everything—strike while the iron is hot!

Need more inspiration?? Check out this infographic for ideas!

Best of Luck on whatever you choose to do socially for Saint Patrick’s Day… and many Irish Blessings to you and your business!

What other ideas do you have? Share with us!

About Infinite Reach:

To find out how we can help your business, please contact us at 602-535-2188 to schedule a no obligation consultation. Seriously, we love to meet people and learn about your business!

Or.. just click here to send us an email! Or, if you know another business or marketing manager that would benefit from this post, please share it! Then we’ll all be LUCKY! 🙂

#shamrock, #leprechaun, #Irish, #StPattys, #StPats #engagement.

mobile phone with twitter, Search Has Gone Social, Blog by Infinite Reach Agency

Search Has Gone Social: 3 Reasons Why This is Great News!

March 5, 2015/0 Comments/in SEO, Social Media /by Kristi Church

Here’s what I love about search and social media. First of all, it’s our business. Plain and simple. Second, it makes the intangible—well, nearly tangible. More than ever before companies are approachable, available and are listening to what their fans and community are thinking, feeling and saying.

The “old-school” days of cutting off a label from your favorite cereal box and dropping it in the mail are from a different time in history. What used to feel like months in receiving any notification back from a company will happen now in a matter of just hours (maybe minutes) with social media and I believe we all cheer as things are much easier now.

Communication is so much faster and really getting to know a company by way of what they publish coupled with their response time is amazing! Yay, technology!! Right? Right.

Search Just Became More Interesting!

Aside from Google+, Google Search is going deeper in the social game. Their last agreement with Twitter expired in 2011 and a lot has changed in the world of technology since then. It’s been a few weeks and now that Google and Twitter have recently signed their (new) deal, Google will have access to Twitters data feed. Yes, things are about to really get interesting.

While Google hasn’t given us much to go on other than the announcement, great news is that this is going to take some time to implement. Our friends over at Stone Temple Consulting reports that out of 138,635 tweets tested, as of right now less than 8% of tweets are being indexed in search results. Unlike other Google algorithm changes, we have some time to adjust to this one!

Tweets that become visible in online search results will give their potential consumers and extra tidbit of info–the will experience the “flavor” of your company right on page 1. And, according to an article on Hubspot; Google is going to index tweets in REAL time search results. The impact of this deal on SEO and website traffic is huge as these two industry giants bring the two worlds of marketers and consumers together—front and center.

With the billions of websites that are published, Google has no idea whether your company is real or even one that is sharing quality content. Their end goal is an optimal user experience delivering quality content and what people are looking for.

Link building in social platforms does just that, it reinforces your quality information. Google loves links but it also loves reinforcement that your web content is relevant to what the end user is searching for and as those links are shared they receive a little extra juice from search engines regarding which websites are credible and should be ranked for what keyword phrases.

Here’s 3 Reasons Why This Is Great News!

Seriously Impacts SEO

Let’s apply how links get Google juice to how we think Tweets will be indexed. Most tweets will be treated the same way. Knowing how Google works they will implement search algorithms that will populate tweets that offer the greatest value to those searching.

Further, a link that gets several retweets or the number of times a tweet gets favorited could very well contribute to SEO and the probability of a bump in ranking as they reflect the activity that specific link produced among social sharers. It obviously contained valuable information and therefore reinforces everything from brand identity to the outbound company voice and philosophies.

Remember—you are the company you keep. If those that retweet and favorite your tweets have a lot of followers or are considered influencers—this will help greatly! The more followers the better–now is a fantastic time to start growing your audience as Google will most likely index tweets from those that have a lot of followers.

Impacts the Marketer

First and foremost—Twitter just became more valuable than ever to your online social interactions.

Companies will have to rethink their social strategies for marketing as this will make their social media interactions more visible to consumers. This is actually a great thing! Perception is everything and now companies will need to be more cognizant of their message while they sit a little taller and be a little more polished in front of their consumers.

Community managers will be more nimble and work harder at understanding the impacts of their interactions while quick to respond to areas of concern. If there is bad PR coverage it very well could reach Google and blow into a huge PR issue that will need to be addressed and contained.

Fresh Content = Building a Stronger Online Community

This deal will lead to more original content. We can’t stress the importance of how updating your websites with fresh, relevant content on a regular basis is to your business. Google appreciates when a website is updated with fresh and relevant content often, which is also true when it comes to your social media accounts.

Create and curate original content on Twitter, especially. Having social profiles that are not updated on a regular basis is like having a dirty front poor to your business. It only takes once for a prospective customer to stop in to a Facebook page or Twitter feed that’s not being utilized and just as a car runs out of gas on the side of the road, so does that potential customer.

Since your feeds can potentially be seen straight away on the front page of Google, remember to put your best foot forward and gain followers by giving them great, fresh but useful content. This will overflow into those you follow, other influencers, lists and more. Use images, hashtags and links to get more followers to retweet and interact with you. Thank others for sharing–all in all, be a good twitter citizen.

Make it easy—just always be posting! If the social media profiles associated with your website are active with frequent, quality updates then the search engines take into consideration that your business is authentic, engaged, and valuable to readers..AND your prospective clients love you for it.

If you don’t have time, hire a community manager. Or better yet, hire us! It’s what we do and we take your entire internet strategy into consideration when planning your posts. We call it the Power of the Triangle. Click here to understand more or fill out this contact form for a complimentary 30 minute consultation! We’re happy to invest our time to help you figure out a solid strategy!

Again, for most, tweets aren’t going to appear in search results overnight. It’s going to take some time for Google to get on top of their tweet indexing game. That means you have some time to make internal adjustments on how you can leverage this new change for the better. It’s great news, really and certainly news that we’re excited about. Yes, search HAS gone social!

Facebook's New Call to Action Button is Kryptonite to Marketers

New Facebook Feature Is Kryptonite Against Change

February 3, 2015/0 Comments/in Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized /by Kristi Church

Facebook. One of my favorite subjects. It’s not my end all marketing tool, but it is a part of a larger strategy that I use within my plan. Like most marketers and people I know, Facebook and I have a love-hate relationship. Some days I absolutely love it…other days I want to bang my head on my keyboard hoping to knock some sense into my brain. The chase is on to find the golden key to unlock the right engagement for best results and just when we think we’ve got it, Facebook ups their game to have us all scrambling again.

There is one thing I absolutely love about Facebook. They are constantly working to strike a balance between keeping their users happy (both social and professional) while increasing their bottom line. Every time they come up with something that might affect marketers in a less than desirable way…(poof!)…they pop out a new feature that gets us all excited again!

For instance…organic reach. In what seems like a strategic 2 year plan on their part, Facebook primed us for the days ahead starting in 2012 when they first announced the paid reach concept. Chatter struck up in forums of how evil Facebook was for starting to charge—and we read conversations for and against it on both sides of the fence—at the end of the day, people were upset that they might have to pay in order to use what they want as a free service.

I get it. I want free too. But truly, nothing in this world is really free. Eventually we’re going to have to pay for what we want and frankly, I’m thankful that Facebook hasn’t adopted other means for making us pay such as going to a monthly subscription rate. While the negative effects for them would have been drastic and huge, they surely could have done that. Rather, they took cues from Google (okay, maybe not…which was first the chicken or the egg?) and developed changes through their algorithms that keep us hopping.

Similar to that of search engine optimization; starting your business, getting your website up and running and clicking on your neon open sign certainly doesn’t mean you’ll get found on the internet. You need SEO to be found. That may also include SEM (search engine marketing), or Pay per Click ads for a little boost. Over the past five years we’ve come to understand that marketing has changed, especially if we want to gain top-of-the-mind awareness.

**One thing is certain, Facebook is always changing…..**

I’ll touch on some old news for a moment. They have created algorithms that, with their announcement last November, are quickly moving away from organic reach to encourage more paid advertising, which makes it more difficult for us to reach our audience. We knew it was coming so it wasn’t really a surprise. In fact, I really started noticing the effects of this change in mid-January. Again, just because we have followers and are active at posting great content…in most cases you’ll need to be on the pay to play bandwagon to have your posts seen by those that like your page and want to support your business. Early adopters are embracing the change, others aren’t there yet. The key is to develop a boosting strategy for posts that you want to have covered. It should become part of your Facebook marketing plan.

Facebook saves the day!

Here’s a positive development to off-set that announcement. Facebook has given us a new way to engage those that follow us with the new Call-to-Action (CTA) button! Yes, I am enamored with how Facebook is going to allow us to drive traffic to a landing page so that we can convert more potential clients and creatively use this platform to grow our own bottom line as well! Could the new Call-to-Action button become the kryptonite in our tool box that helps us gain more qualified engagement? The answer is YES! Especially when used as part of a strategic ad campaign!

I mentioned in a recent blog post the “4 Reasons Facebook Will Remain a Social Powerhouse in 2015”, that Facebook is great at building trust, but they’re also great at continuing to develop what page admins want. In fact, they want “to release features that will help drive business objectives to align with a business’s goals”. The new Call-to-Action button is a perfect example of that! Woot! Woot!

Here’s how it works:

Next to the “Like” button at the top of your Facebook page sits the Create a Call-to-Action. You can see in the example below that Sign Up is one of 7 different Call-to-Action buttons that are available. This makes it possible to set up your CTA to work congruently with another campaign to help drive clicks where you want them.

Take for example this 3 week test performed by Brian Kim from the famous online retailer Dollar Shave Club. “The Sign Up Call-to-Action delivered a 2.5x higher conversion rate versus other comparable social placements aimed to drive new user acquisition.” That’s great news! Personally and professionally I’m encouraged and I can’t wait to do some testing of my own in the near future!

So.. the 7 options for your CTA are:

Sign Up
Book Now
Contact Us
Use App
Play Game
Show Now
Watch Video

All great options when combining an ad campaign to drive engagement or even as a stand-alone way to promote your business page. The new Call-to-Action button is rolling out to Pages now through the end of 2015.

So as we are all excited and wrapped up in creating our new CTA, let’s try not forget the fact that if we want more than mere 5 followers to see our posts, we still have to pay for that coverage. At least until we pay our ad bill…ouch!

About Us: In addition to our other services, Infinite Reach Agency specializes in advanced Facebook marketing through ad placement and daily social engagement. If you have questions on this topic or have questions on how to implement a proper Facebook ad campaign, contact us for a complimentary 30 minute consultation! We’re happy to help!

Feel free to use this image in your marketing or better yet, share it on Pinterest!

4 Reasons Facebook Will Remain a Social Powerhouse in 2015

January 7, 2015/0 Comments/in Branding, Social Media, Uncategorized /by Kristi Church

With Facebook announcing its Q4 2014 results in just a few short weeks, here’s look at why this media giant will remain the powerhouse in 2015 when it comes to social media.

Facebook is Effective at Building Trust

I remember the day it happened. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I was among them. As we all sat around our computers, Facebook users squawked as soon as paid ads hit their feeds at the beginning of 2012. With that said, paid ads have been extremely successful resulting thousands of dollars of revenue gains since they’ve hit the scene. However, brand awareness and trust has been built on the platform with big companies growing their audiences and being more relevant than ever. In a study produced by Simply Measured of top 100 companies, there were a collective 1.1 billion fans and 77 percent of those companies and individual audiences of greater than one million fans.”

Fast forward to 2015 and Facebook fans are now accustomed to viewing branded content more than ever. Take that one step further. They’re proven to become more trusting to those large brands by becoming fans themselves in support of the brands they follow.

Those ads weren’t such a bad thing after all!

Larger Fan Base = User Recommendations

For companies, brand loyalty is the result of all that good trust juju that’s being built everyday on Facebook and other social media. It’s no secret that people want to connect to the companies and public figures they love by understanding them socially and emotionally. It’s as close to being personal with them as they can get by easily connecting at no cost—a huge benefit on both sides!

However, this kind of brand loyalty and growing fan base also translates into user recommendations. Think of this as the digital word-of-mouth if you will. As of January 2, 2015, aside from Facebook itself, Coca-Cola and YouTube round out the Top 25 Facebook Pages for highest number of fans. On the far right of this chart you’ll see a 1-10 rating on how likely a fan is to recommend the page to friends. More raving fans translates into more engagement and more of a following. Woot! So.. there’s no time like the present to grow your Facebook fans!

Facebook Balances Brands and What Traditional Users Want to See

Facebook relies on users and their engagement to grow their financials. So, posts that are more engaging are the posts that Facebook juices in order to drive that engagement. One thing that Facebook is great at is listening to its audience. While there’s brand loyalty and fan base growth on Facebook, this came loud and clear in a recent Facebook survey that users don’t want to see their newsfeed spammed with sales pitches.

So Facebook is adapting. Yes, again. It’s good news for users, and not so great for marketers. New 2015 algorithm updates reflect different outcomes for brands as engagement remains their focus. What this means for branding is that there will be even less visibility to those posts that solely push people to enter promotions, to buy a product, enter promotions and or sweepstakes or reuse of existing content from ads. Posts with a hard sell take the back seat! (See example below).

example of bad executed fb ad under new 2015 algorithm changes

Facebook’s example of what NOT to do with an ad!

How they’re accomplishing this is that Facebook is simply lessening the competition in the News Feed so that more relevant content gets seen. According to a recent blog post, Facebook remarked “This change is about giving people the best Facebook experience possible and being responsive to what they’ve told us”. Kuddos to you for listening, Facebook!

Facebook Continues to Develop What Page Admins Want

Part of this new January 2015 Facebook update, businesses that have Places Facebook Pages, which simply means having a brick and mortar location, admins are becoming a bit happier! They can now toot their horns a little louder by adding maps, ratings and check-ins to their page. This awesome update gives users more assurance about local brands/businesses they follow while also upping their street cred!

No matter what kind of changes that Facebook is going to make, businesses everywhere are going to stay the course, post their content and pay for ads to be in front of their audiences. They key is going to be relevancy with a focus on giving your audiences the info they want without being perceived as giant spam machine. So.. quit spewing mindless content so Facebook AND your users will love you! Their loyalty will be proven in your Facebook “Likes”.

Tweet Like a Pro | Social Media | Infinite Reach Agency

Are You Tweeting Yet? Tips to Tweet Like a Pro

August 21, 2014/in Social Media /by Kristi Church

So you want to Tweet. That little blue bird can be so confusing. We’re unsure what to do, how to Tweet, who to follow. There’s an entire new vocabulary to learn in order to send a message of only 140 characters out to the electronic masses. We’ve done a bit of research, and these are a few of the most helpful tips for becoming an expert Tweeter.

Six of Our Best Tips to Tweet

Have a Plan – A content marketing plan is key to social media marketing. Have a plan designed to communicate your brand, events, and marketing information in a consistent manner. Forbes.com has a pretty good article on integrating Twitter into your marketing plan. Focus on building your brand, incorporating your identity into every Tweet you tweet.
#Hashtags – Make sure they are relevant to your tweet. Use them sparingly. Media Bistro recommends limiting your hashtags to 2 per tweet. It makes reading cumbersome to have to wade through 5 or 6 hashtags in a tweet! Your followers will appreciate limited #Hashtags!
Know Your Audience – If you don’t know your audience, you don’t know what is relevant to them! Learn how your products and services can improve their lives – learn how you can give value to your customers.
Consistency – Keep your message consistent. If you’re all over the place, you’ll confuse your followers. Remember, Twitter is a conversation between you and your followers. If you make a left turn when they are expecting you to continue along the same road, you might just lose them!
Keep it Simple – You only get 140 characters to convey your message. Keep it simple and easy to read. Read up on Twitter short hand – you can find a nice little Twitter Dictionary that will get you up to speed on Twerminology and allow you to abbreviate and still be understood!
Share the Twitter Love – The Twitterverse is not a solitary place. It’s a worldwide network of conversations. Take some time to thank you followers, engage in discussions, and promote or endorse other businesses you know and like. Practice good Twitter Karma and it’ll come back to you a hundred times over!

The Long & the Short of It

Twitter is a valuable resource to help you market your business, build a brand, and engage potential customers. Treat it with the same care you would the rest of your marketing plan. Need help with your Social Media Marketing plan? Contact us for a consultation!

Social Media Rockstar by Infinite Reach Agency

Become a Social Media Rockstar!

August 15, 2014/2 Comments/in Social Media, Uncategorized /by Kristi Church

I never win anything. It’s true. That fact has never really bothered me though, because I get paid back in other areas. Like…I have amazing parking Karma. There is always a great parking spot waiting for me wherever I go. Oh…and green light Karma too. I usually get to breeze around town from point A to point B without hitting many red lights–hardly at all! And…I always, always, always get the best customers..no matter what I’m selling or what I’m doing. Truly, I can’t complain. During my many years as a sales rep, I’ve won many contests, but that’s because I had control over my own destiny. I once won a sales contest by selling 2,453 boxes of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda to my existing client base. True story. The harder I worked, the better my odds were of winning prizes ranging from trips and cruises to cash.

Social Media Rockstar, NAWBO Phoenix, Infinite Reach Agency

Pg 24 of Poke the Box by Seth Godin

Still.. I hardly ever win just because. The last time I won something, I went out and played bingo with my friend Michael and forced him to shake my hand at the beginning of the evening and make a pact that if either of us won, we had to share each other’s winnings. As luck would have it…I won that night. He wasn’t very happy during that handshake…but I’ll tell you what, he sure was thrilled when the evening was over. Splitting that $1000 was fun!

Last month at the NAWBO Phoenix luncheon I happened to do what I always do…and that’s chit chat out in social media about what’s going on and where I am. I was excited to be at that luncheon as one of my favorite influential women of Phoenix was speaking that day, Sharon Lechter. You can bet she had some great statistics to share — which I sent out into electronic bliss knowing I could help spread the news of her fantastic talk and this wonderful luncheon I was more than happy to attend. I’ve grown very fond of Sharon, especially after sitting in on an interview that Susan Brooks conducted with her for the Thrive at 55 Commemorative Book which I also had the honor of photographing Sharon that day. She advocates for women and teaches our children financial responsibility. She’s special. So this luncheon was a treat for me.

In addition, I happen to not only love supporting my NAWBO Phoenix sisters, but I also have to admit that I love dining at the Phoenix Country Club. A great friend of mine, Robert Roth, is the Director of Catering and I know each and every lunch is going to be delicious, hearty and healthy.

Oh…and that irresistable, mouth-watering, delicious, chocolate mousse — that is the BEST chocolate mousse in town! Even though I’m training for my first triathlon and can usually forego most sweets — that chocolate mousse will always have its way with me when I eat lunch at the Phoenix Country Club — and it most certainly did this day!

So, I’m a Rockstar!

I am super proud to announce to the world that YESTERDAY.. I was a WINNER! I totally didn’t expect it and it took me by complete surprise, but somehow I won this awesome gift pack from NAWBO and InfusionSoft for being the Social Media Rockstar for July! When Dorothy Wolden, president of NAWBO Phoenix called my name, I felt like I had won on The Price Is Right! Oh yeah. You read that right. I swear that lights were flashing on and off, bells were ringing and crowds were cheering! I was so excited…I could hardly believe it! I ACTUALLY WON SOMETHING!

Start A Conversation!

So, just how hard is it to be a Social Media Rockstar? Just start a conversation! Truth be told, it only takes a few quick seconds to take a photograph and a few quotes and send them out on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. When you get in the habit of remembering to stop and take a few moments to document the story of what’s happening, sharing the social love becomes second nature.

Here’s a sneak peek at what I won:

I’ll also admit that I squealed like a school girl as soon as I opened the gift bag to see what was inside! Infusionsoft sponsored these cool techy prizes–from one Social Media Rock Star to another–THANK YOU!! The Infusionsoft gift bag was filled with a beautiful green (did I mention green is my FAVORITE color??) neoprene iPad case, a green stylus that is also a pen (YES!), a charging brick Power Pank–portable power supply for my devices (I am ALWAYS out of juice!) and a book by Seth Godin, Poke the Box! I literally hit the jackpot! 🙂

I’m extremely proud and grateful to have won the title of Social Media Rockstar for July for NAWBO Phoenix. Being good at social media is also part of my livelihood as its huge part of our business. I better be a Social Media Rockstar — our Infinite Reach clients are counting on it!

So here’s 3 tips, for those of you just beginning!

1. Tell the story with a photo–take a wide angle shot telling people the story of what’s happening.

2. As you’re listening to someone speak, jot down a few important quotes they say that might inspire others.

3. Look around for hashtags—and when in doubt, make one or two up. No more than three on a post.

Don’t be shy–just do it! Learn to Tweet like a boss! You never know! You, too can become NAWBO Phoenix’s next Social Media Rockstar!!

What tips do you have to help someone get started in becoming a Social Media Rockstar? We’d LOVE to hear your thoughts!!

Smiles,

Kristi and the Infinite Reach Team

One Thing is Certain: Facebook Always Changes

May 25, 2014/in Social Media /by Shane

Are you using Facebook ads to reach your target audience? Have you used them and found they reach a far broader audience than you wanted? Last week, Facebook rolled out changes to their targeting features to give you easier, more effective ways to reach the people you need to reach!

Changes on the Horizon

Over the next several weeks, they will be rolling out improved Core Audience targeting options. These are already built into all of the Facebook Ad buying interfaces, but now you’ll be able to reach your audience based on the following targeting types: location, demographic, interests, and behaviors.

Location

If you are looking for customers that are specific to your physical location, this is a great tool to narrow that scope. You’ll be able to build your campaign to target or EXCLUDE any combination of geographical points:

Country & City
Country & State
State & City
State & Zip code (US only)

Demographic

You’ll be able to select your target market based on a variety of data that Facebook users enter on their profiles. A few of the categories you can choose from include:

Relationship status
Education
Work
Market Segments
Life Events (engagements, marriage, etc)
Workplace
Job Title

Interests on Facebook

Facebook has redefined their interest based targeting segments so each one has a simple meaning. If your target market is people who are baseball fans, simply choose Baseball as your marketing segment. Facebook will sift through the users finding ones who have Liked or shown interest in baseball related material on Facebook. This eliminates the need for selecting multiple options, such as a broad category and keywords below that.

Behaviors

There is a new targeting option in Core Audiences called behaviors, and it includes Partner Categories. This lets you target your campaign to people based on things they buy and the devices they use.

These changes will give you the ability to narrow your target audience when buying Facebook Advertising. While your ad will touch fewer people, it is far more likely to touch the people that matter ….. the ones that are most likely to buy what you are selling!

For more information, you can find the Facebook article here:

https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Core-Audiences