Result: 

• a $150 million fine for CEO
• a $4 million fine for distributors
• a direct selling business ban for three plaintiffs

The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the number of unsubstantiated claims.

In April and June 2020, the FTC sent warning letters to 16 direct selling companies to address and demand the removal of claims that they or their distributors were making to tap into consumers’ fears during the pandemic.

The warning letters highlighted problematic language and cautioned companies that such activity on social media is unlawful under the FTC Act.

Examples

Acts and practices subject to FTC investigations:

• illegal pyramid schemes
• deceptive earning claims
• unsubstantiated product claims

Lesson learned: When a company acts illegally, defendants – including senior management, promoters, and distributors – may be named personally, face bans, and be required to turn over money they have taken from consumers.

Why do misleading claims appear on social media?

Reason 1.

Distributors want to sell and recruit more by any means. Authenticity on social media is an effective way to cut through all the endless content “noise” and have meaningful interactions with consumers. But sometimes it can go too far.

The direct selling model’s huge advantage is a massive salesforce optimized to become social media sellers generating income for themselves and ultimately increasing corporate sales.  What’s more, social selling’s impact has grown during Covid times, attracting more and more newcomers to social media. Consequently, there’s a greater possibility of non-compliant posts.

Reason 2.

Lack of guidelines, documentation, proper training. When corporations don’t have social media guidelines in place to secure their reputations, they’re walking on a minefield – and they may end up in federal court.  It’s not that distributors intentionally harm their companies, it’s just circumstances.

Top-performing distributors want to be empowered by HQ. They’re ready to obey and follow the rules, but those rules must be clear and known by the teams.

Reason 3.

No effective tools. The best way to protect your company against legal risks is to correct questionable posts before they’re published. Implementing third-party solutions which can filter keywords, ban them from use, or warn authors about their ambiguity is usually a part of a pre-posting compliance strategy.

It’s more effective to track distributors in the initial stage of content production than it is to monitor social media afterward. However, there are tools for post-posting compliance and network monitoring like Momentum Factor.

Steps to zero distributor violations

Social media compliance means following the rules when using social media to engage with the public. The “rules” are a mix of industry regulations, federal and state laws, and company guidelines. If that seems too complicated at first sight, remember that the foundation of your compliance is explaining to your distributors the main principle of consumer protection: telling the truth.

Training.

Establish clear rules of conduct. Claims – by direct selling companies and their distributors – must be non-misleading and substantiated.

Monitoring.

Use compliance tracking software. Use compliance tracking software. The FTC has cautioned direct selling companies that they are obliged to instruct their distributors and monitor them so they do not make misrepresentations. Intelligent software can filter keywords at the pre-approval stage and track networks for illegal content to minimize future manual searches.

Enforcement.

Don’t tolerate non-compliant claims. Unsubstantiated product claims are a serious challenge for the industry. On the one hand, companies want excited distributors. On the other hand, if these excited distributors exaggerate, it can get the company into serious trouble. Proof of efficacy is vital.

More on How to Make Distributors Authentic Yet Compliant on Social Media watch the webinar with Kellye Drye lawyer John Villafranco.

Final Thoughts

Direct selling has had a record year. Despite all the challenges 2020 presented, according to DSA, approximately 80% of direct selling companies grew their revenue compared to 2019.

The FTC keeps on cracking down on direct selling companies participating in fraudulent activities: work-from-home scams, pyramid schemes, and companies that make promises about income opportunities which in actuality cost consumers more than they earn.

How to avoid warnings and cases in the future?

First, recognize the importance of social media compliance. Second, ensure that all claims made are accurate and have proof of efficacy. Third, educate distributors about best practices for product and earnings claims.

Book a demo to learn how PromoRepublic can secure and amplify your brand on social.

The post Why Your Distributors’ Social Selling Should Be Compliant appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Today, the dream of creating a successful franchise business from beyond an abstract idea in the mind is about to be reality. However, there are still difficulties the independent business owners may struggle with. Among them, franchise owners usually highlight such factors as the financial and legal requirements for hiring franchisees, frequent investing of a substantial sum of money, must-stick hard and fast rules, and a risk of insufficient support.

The truth is, hard work is still necessary to be able to not only launch but also provide optimum quality of services, bearing in mind that all the internal and external business development processes have to be maintained and kept up-to-date. Yes, it takes time. And, yes, it takes effort. But face it, no one is born with enough knowledge and experience to become a big successful franchisee. Although our genetic predispositions to a variety amount of activities and congenital characteristics, success is the result of a tremendous amount of work.

In a nutshell, the movement from a starting point to a final goal can be less painful to learn from the mistakes of franchises which have succeeded.

Jutty Mottle, an editor from Retail Customer Experience, carried out a study on the common missteps and situation addressing three franchise leaders came across. And it’s all ambitious. Keith Levenson, owner of ClimbZone, Rocco Fiorentino, CEO of PrimoHoagies and David Mesa, chief development officer at PJ’s Coffee shared their stories on a panel discussion at the International Franchise Expo that took place at the Javits Center in New York City on June 2.

Here are the three highlights of the premier annual event for existing franchisors and industry suppliers.

It’s Hard At First

Photo: exhibition of iLoveKickboxing.com’s local fitness kickboxing

You may even have no idea about what franchising is. For instance, ClimbZone founder Levenson couldn’t give a proper answer when someone was asking him about the starting point of becoming a franchisee.

He confesses, “I had to Google it, as I didn’t know what it meant,” and then adds “It [franchising] sucked me in.”
Speaking about success, Levenson stresses, it’s tied to making a good franchisee decisions. ClimbZone hasn’t had to spend much in marketing to find franchisees as a good number were longtime customers.
Then he continues, “We are picky about who we bring in”.
CEO of PrimoHoagies Fiorentino thinks that all franchisees are like siblings and are very, very different. He noted that the biggest problem that is often happening is not having necessary funding at the very start.

The main piece of advice from him is, “Don’t go into franchising undercapitalized”.

Onward and Upward

No matter how great experience you may have it and how smart and expert your surroundings are, it always will be something unknown, unclear, – the think worthy deeper investigation and profound research.

According to Rocco, named as “the most experienced franchisor on the panel”, all the experience he is proud of now was gained by the never-ending process of trial and error.

“Once you begin to stop learning,” he notes “You limit what you can share. Learn from the mistakes.” He puts emphasis on the fact that all we’re in for a great ride and there are a lot of signs so pay attention.

The rule of PJ’s Coffee Mesa is hiring for what’s needed. He recommends finding out where your talents are and then hire those who have the skills you don’t. Sound like to find a missing part of the puzzle.

He prefers hiring entrepreneurial people as starting a franchise requires entrepreneurial skills.

When it comes to giving the definition to the word “brand success”, he isn’t lost in thoughts, but explains that it is not only knowing the brand but defining how the brand differentiates from the competition.

About the Customer Experience

Fact: every franchisee wants to better connect with their customers. Understand their needs and wishes with no harm to business.

The franchise leaders mentioned above shared their philosophy of customer experience, which was built on real use cases as well as personal experience.

Rocco Fiorentino, CEO of PrimoHoagies offers, “Don’t mix up service and experience [in terms of ensuring a good customer experience]. How does the customer feel? You need to build loyalty, and customer experience is key.”
“We focus on customer experience to match our quality of food. The customer experience is as important and as good as the product.”
Keith Levenson, owner of ClimbZone, shares, “We call customers ‘guests,’ as we want it to be a family experience.”

The Final Word

While considering becoming a franchisee, first off you should understand that your franchise is based on a proven business idea which is full of rules to be followed, although, at the same time, you still have to make your particular franchise work in your area. No doubt, you’ll get a course of training, guides, and, maybe, a mentor. However, all these things will neither ensure rapid success nor keep you from the unexpected denial of your franchise.

*All photos are taken from an official International Franchise Expo Facebook page.

The post International Franchise Expo Roundup: The Main Points appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

How to Generate Large Amounts of Revenue From the Content You Create 

By Joe Pulizzi

When we saw Joe, it was exciting because he shared 10 Ways to Monetize Your Content.

Originally, the lines of distribution were owned by big companies. Now everybody can create content. This has created a Channel Explosion. Remember, how we always tell you that “content is king”? Instead of communicating through someone else’s channel, you need to create and distribute your own amazing information and build audiences.

Keep an eye out for Joe’s latest book, “Killing Marketing” – coming out in September. It’s about how innovative businesses are turning marketing cost into profit. Joe explained how you build your audience and actually 99% of organizations do that wrong. Content creation is not an asset.

Content Tilt

Joe explained that you need to have a content brand. We know already that if you just have a company and a blog, that’s not a content brand. You need to know what you represent and what you are telling people. Because that is your content brand.

We’ve talked before with you about how your content needs to stand out from your competition. So how does yours differentiate? Joe suggested creating a content marketing mission statement, which is a fantastic idea!

Here’s how to get started with one: know who you’re talking to and who you’re targeting. Because if you are talking to several audiences at a time – you will fail. The main things to be established are:

1. Core target audience
2. What will be delivered
3. The outcome for the audience

Building the Base

Your base is very important. You need to choose one content type, such as video or podcast. Then also one main platform such as site or blog. Consistent delivery is critical, it can’t be simply Monday and Wednesday, but Monday and Wednesday at 10 am. Be patient and understand that it can take a long period of time (up to 18 months) to become successful. If it doesn’t work for you, look for something else.

Image credit: Social Media Examiner

Harvesting Audience

We’ve talked before about how important it is to build your subscriber base. So we were pleased to hear Joe talk about this topic. He explained that if you aren’t actively building your subscribers, you are leaving the control of them to someone else. He recommended on focusing on e-mail subscribers as a key metric. When you have a list, you can monetize it.

YouTube decides whose video to show, Facebook as well. Email subscribers are all yours. Build your email list.

For this you need:

1. Amazing Newsletter

2. Exchange of Value (eBook, research report, etc.)

Diversification

Keep in mind that Moz started a consulting company, then a blog, then came the shows, etc. Your marketing should be a profit center.

Here is Joe’s recommended Revenue Model:

・ Advertising

・ Subscriptions

・ Syndication

・ Content Services

Content Marketing Institute, Under the Hood

Joe shared with us his own results. They started with a blog in 2010. Every day seven days a week. 2010 revenues – $75,000, in 2015 – $10+ million.

1. Advertising and sponsorship (banners, emails)

2. Conference and Events (Content Marketing World)

3. Subscriptions (Content Marketing University)

4. Donations

5. Premium Content

How to Create Highly Shareable Social Media Images

By Rebekah Radice

We agree with Rebekah, that you build trust through a consistent brand. As a content creator, tying your branding to everything you write creates awareness and that leads to traffic and sales. People will identify your brand with visuals they see on your page.

Create Highly Shareable Images

Rebekah says to design with your audience in mind and find out what fan pages they like, their location, activities, and even purchase decisions. Are these images about lifestyle or vector based? We think that’s very smart. Use Facebook Audience Insights to define your target audience and create visuals according to their preferences. See what other pages they like and what type of visuals are shared there.

Rebekah encourages us to find our own style. Look to successful brands to see how they’ve done it. Starbucks teaches us a valuable lesson – sometimes less is more. Especially when it comes to visual content. Single focus: hand and a Frappuccino. Nike understands the mentality of their target audience, and they use this knowledge to effectively showcase their brand.

Go to each social network to research further. Look at Instagram hashtag hubs (top trending posts). You can also go to Search and write your keyword, a product for example and see most popular images for this word search, we’ve done this and have had excellent results!

Use Pinterest to see what style is trending in your industry/niche.

When you do your research, make sure you really consider:

・ How do the images make you feel?

・ What’s the sense you get of the brand?

・ Would you want to do business with them?

Image credit: Social Media Examiner

Define your style in 5 easy steps:

1. Color consistency

Color psychology plays an enormous role in how our audience interacts with our brand, how it responds.

Choose a color that best represents your company personality, the feelings you want to impart and the action you want them to take. Start with your main color. You can use an online color picker. Try one of these tools: colordot, colors.co Or you can upload your image to imagecolorpicker.com Another option is to download a Chrome or Firefox extension to find colors you like online.

2. Composition

Composition is the main key to create highly shareable visuals. Easy to read, easy to get the point – a good composition. Similar elements draw the eye and create consistency.

3. Choose your fonts wisely

Think about what is your main font. It should be super easy for people to read your content. We’ve seen what an impact this can have on social and your site too. Your font expresses your company personality and has a direct impact on your conversions. HubSpot did a survey and found that using 3 font styles makes it easier to read content.

When choosing your font, ask yourself the following questions: is my company fun, silly, entertaining, serious, or straightforward? Is my content fun, silly, entertaining, serious, or straightforward?

4. Nail Your Message

Ask yourself: “Is it relative to my topic and audience?” Make sure the image has a bold focal point. Choose images that are clear and easy to view. But! Don’t use a corporate-style stock image (Fake vs. Authentic). And don’t be the same – break all the rules.

5. Brand It

To be remembered, you must make an impact. Create unique and memorable images that consistently stand out in the feed. Always add a watermark – logo, hashtag, or a slogan – to all images, so they can’t be copied by others, this is something that we highly recommend!

How to Build a Digital Marketing Plan

By Rich Brooks

Plan before you build

Rich used a unique example, that building your website is like building a house. It’s not for you – it’s for them, so they have a good experience at your site. Before you start any building, answer yourself three fundamental questions:

1. What are your audiences’ goals when they come to the website?
2. Who would you say are your three biggest competitors?
3. How does your company differentiate itself from these competitors?

Things to keep in mind when building a website:

1. Keep it mobile friendly
2. Have a CMS (Client Management System)  
3. A beautiful design.

Action Items

You need to create a site that lets visitors interact and act on opportunities that you give them. Rich suggests that – at a minimum – you have the following:

・ Phone

・ Contact Form

・ Email Opt-in

・ Call to Action!

We agree with all of this, and highly recommend you add the e-mail newsletter with an ETHICAL BRIBE so people are attracted to your offer.

Image credit: Social Media Examiner

Copywriting

Whether you hire a copywriter or do-it-yourself, here are some great tips on making your copy always look professional at your site. Keep these tips handy!

・ Write for One Person

・ Descriptive Page Title

・ Use Keywords in your Anchor Text

・ Narrow Your Focus

・ Keep the Copy Short

・ Be Specific (you are not the greatest company of all times.)

What Social Network is Right for You?

We highly recommend you take a look at the following questions, when thinking about adding that latest & hot social media channel to your marketing plan:

・ Does my ideal customer use this platform?

・ Can I engage with my ideal customer here?

・ How do I convert my ideal customer here?

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Future of Social Media Marketing

By Bryan Kramer, Sandy Carter, Christopher Penn, and Christopher Carfi

One thing we know we’re really going to be paying attention to is this: technology, with the help of AI and bots, will become easier to work with! Isn’t that fantastic? So marketers need to think how their brand can be personified through the bot as it offers a more personal experience than an app.

Ask yourself: How is Social Media going to evolve and change in the next years? It was interesting to hear from the panel that significant part of what Social Media is today is easily automated by chatbots. If you do it with a template today, a machine will do it without you tomorrow.

Image credit: Social Media Examiner

You’re going to be thrilled to know that “busy work” will soon be a thing of the past. All the stuff that you do in your daily work that’s repetitive, bots can take on that task and free you up to do more interesting things. We’ll be able to be more creative with what we do. For example, if we are able to try 2-3 versions of a post or an ad, we’ll be able to try 2000 of them in parallel.

What do you need to do to stay ahead of the curve? The panel’s hot tip: learn Ruby or Python languages as a marketer, at least the basics, and that will let you be able to expand what you do. Because so much of machine learning and deep learning is available in these languages and a lot of it is free.

How to Use Social Media to Engage, Connect and Convert at Each Stage of the Customer Lifecycle 

By Shama Hyder

Shama said something that we’ve always encouraged you to think about: that social media is not just Facebook, Twitter, etc. Social media is not just the platform, the platform is secondary. Social media really means that people are the media. How we share information, how we make decisions, has all changed.

The modern customer understands this and uses social media as a tool of power to be able to collect information. So context relevancy is everything in terms of how you reach out to your audience. It’s important to make your content and your brand about your customers, and not about your company. It used to be “what does our brand say?” Now you have to ask yourself, “What does doing business with us allow our customers to say about their personal brand?”

Understand that the primary reason people use social media is to showcase their own identity.

Image credit: Social Media Examiner

Education, Transparency, Choices. Know that this is how you attract = you educate.

It’s wrong to not want to share info, because of a concern that competitors might see it. Your best bet is to outeducate your competitors. Being able to curate, being able to turn data into wisdom is what gives you power. To us, this is taking “content is king” to a much higher level, understanding how to “best” your competition and becoming the expert in your niche.

Know that people want to do business with human beings, so being transparent is crucial. What people respect is how you respond to possible negative experiences someone might have with your product or service. So just as we’ve explained to you, if someone posts on social media about your product or service and even if it is negative, it is best to respond in a way to attempt to repair the customer relationship and to help others understand how your brand helps people in every way.

Today’s consumers are also so used to having lots of choices. It is critical that you give people choices how to engage with you. We’ve always recommended that your content can be similar across platforms, but it’s ok because people get to choose.

Always remember this: sharing your customer “success stories” is what helps to attract your next customers!

If anyone made it to the end of this post, we’re glad to have you here! We hope you were able to learn something valuable and will start implementing it for your business today. And if you had any hesitations about attending SMMW, they have got to be all cleared out by now! See you there next year.

The post Key Findings from SMMW17 Part 2 appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

Social Media Marketing in 2017: What the Newest Research Reveals

By Michael Stelzner

Michael spoke about where the social media industry is headed, you’re going to want to pay attention to this. We’re glad we did!  

There were tips on understanding Facebook algorithm and at least trying to make it work for you. Facebook really wants people to see quality content. It is designed to help consumers have an incredible experience.

Your content gets scanned by the algorithm, whether it’s text, image or video (video gets the #1 preference), and if people react (by a like, click, comment or share), the reach is expanded. Keep in mind, it’s no longer based on time of the post.

Facebook no longer has room in the newsfeed for ads, so this means there is even less reach for the organic content and it all leads to making it harder to grow your business through social.

One fact we found fascinating was that: 2 out of 3 marketers say that Facebook is the most important platform for them. If you want to get more exposure, Michael recommends mixing up your content & so do we! Focus on educating your audience, but don’t only post business stuff, try to entertain them too. Also post content from other sources, not just you. All of this together will get your audience to engage with you more.

Image Credit: Social Media Examiner

Visuals

Michael told us that 85% of marketers use them; 41% of marketers claim visuals are the most important form of content, more than blogging, videos or podcasts. You need to re-think your Facebook posting strategy to comply with the algorithm.

Fortunately, there is a way to break through the algorithm – try with Live videos! Facebook really wants users to consume live video, so it gives priority to it. Keep in mind that Facebook is heavily investing in Messenger too.

One thing we found very exciting – did you know that you can sell through Messenger??? So you can have your customers interact with bots through Messenger.

Creating amazing content will always stand the test of time, something we’ve told you all along. When people share content, thus making the algorithm work for you, the content establishes thought leadership and makes your business indispensable. This is exactly what you want! Remember – Facebook Live is the current leader of the pack.

According to Michael, the future is behind personal messaging apps – Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and the likes. It might not be 100% clear yet to all of us how all of this will develop (obviously bots are already playing a big part), but that seems to be the trend.

How To Improve Your Facebook Marketing ROI by Mari Smith

Now the very first tip Mari shared with us is a real stunner, you’re going to want to pay attention to this: Facebook is actually running out of ad inventory and it’s getting much harder to cut through. So what do you do if you want to grow your audience on Facebook? Instead of advertising to people who could actually turn out to be irrelevant, why not upload your own custom audience?

Image Credit: Klipfolio

Mari’s marketing theory is simple but important to grasp. It’s something we’ve talked about here too, but listen to how she puts it: she says there are numbers-based marketers, who only care about the numbers and graphs, and then there are heart-based marketers, who truly care about the people they are reaching. They deeply understand their needs and how their products and services can help to solve their problems.

You know that “traditional” marketing is the numbers based, BUT social media marketing is really the heart-relationship based type of marketing.

What you need to do to be really successful, is actually merge these 2 types of marketing. Because if you make people happy, then you’re going to make more money. Those positive emotional experiences from top quality customer service and experiencing your products are equaling more sales.

With content to help your Facebook ROI, Mari suggests you focus on video, because it gets 3x the engagement of other content. What really surprised us is that only less than 1% of the posts a week are video! Know that your competition is UNDERUTILIZING video – so you should do it to improve your ROI.

What type of video is best? The square video format is best, both on Facebook and Instagram, getting 20% more views. We weren’t surprised to hear that people look at video content 5 times longer than at static.

Want to hear something cool? The Facebook algorithm actually knows if you are a sophisticated advertiser – or a newbie!

How to Use a Business Profile to Get More Sales From Instagram

By Jenn Herman

Instagram has become a very popular social media channel. We’ve talked about it before, and how it can help you. So you can understand why we were eager to hear what Jenn had to say. Instagram is actually used by 1/3 of ALL PEOPLE who use the Internet! A huge audience you can reach!

What’s exciting to hear too, is that the traffic from Instagram has a much lower bounce rate than on all the other Social Media platforms. It also has the highest engagement rates, and one of the very strongest set of community business tools.

If you are thinking of upgrading to an Instagram business profile, the Contact button is actually the best reason to do so. We recommend you take a look at this. People are closing sales within hours of opening their business accounts, because their audience can find them easily on Instagram and call them instantly! Remember: to do this, it has to be connected to a Facebook business page.

Image Credit: Social Media Examiner

Understand that both your name & username are the ONLY searchable criteria. So do not put #hashtags within your profile description, they are useless. Try to add a keyword in your Name (not your username). Jenn explained, if you are a photographer, for example, then choose a name such as “John Doe Photographer” as your Name. It’s critical to have that keyword in your Name or Username so you can easily be found in search results.

Just as we’ve explained with other social media bios, your Instagram bio is an “elevator pitch.” You are sharing information especially with first time visitors to your profile, it’s an introduction. It’s important to add a call-to-action in your bio, but also try to make it fun & engaging. Some like to use emojis to do this.

There are lots of types of content to share on Instagram, such as products or services, offers and promos, behind-the-scenes, tips or tutorials, greetings or messages, contests or giveaways, exclusive content only for your Instagram audience.

Jenn recommends that you use only “organic” style images, not like in magazines, overly staged. It is better at making emotional connections. You also want to be a bit of a storyteller to connect, so tell your company or brand story – how it started, how it is growing. Even as a solopreneur, not just a bigger company!  

To be successful, both Jenn and we recommend that you create consistent and recognizable content, that would make people connect emotionally to your brand. Remember you will always attract attention by creating quality captions, being descriptive and entertaining, educational and informative. Keep your content “short & sweet” on Instagram – at about 1-3 short paragraphs, with 2-3 sentences per paragraph. Add text on the image and tell people what you want them to do – click on the link in your bio, use the hashtag, tag someone, or another short Call To Action.

Instagram ads use Facebook ads targeting platform. But, you can reach NEW audiences on Instagram. We especially like Instagram for businesses, because the costs are affordable, budgets are lower than for Facebook ads.

Want to know, what to promote in your ad? Focus on value for your customer: resources and downloads, webinars, campaigns, flash sales, local events etc. Always do remember the Call To Action button at the end!

How to Promote and Sell Using Live Video

By Kim Garst

Kim is passionate about SMM, but truly passionate about VIDEO. People are not on Social Media for money, they want to connect with friends and family there, something that we really agree with. Kim explained that if you want people to watch your videos, you have to bring value to them and they should trust you. Because people buy from those they know, like and trust. She’s made 5 – 6k videos up to now.

Kim made an excellent point, that within the first 2 minutes, people decide whether they want to watch this video or not. One great tip Kim had was that the path to profit starts with serving up value based content. Video is a piece of content and content is king. So you should spend as much time as you need, to create a great & valuable piece. Videos can also be transcribed into video posts. But Kim also admitted something that we all know: creating great content is tough!

Kim reminded us that we will spend 6 hours writing a blog post, that you can use LIVE videos to tell the ideas from your blog and then transcribe the video. If you are new to video, she offered an excellent tip, you don’t have to go public first, try it “solo” or with a friend with videos before going public. You can use videos everywhere – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat.

Facebook

Kim suggested making 1 minute video clips of your talking points. You can take a video and cut it into 5 – 10 pieces, which we think is a great idea. Kim reminded us that sometimes we go LIVE and think “I rock” and we do. But not to make videos if you don’t want to, because people feel your mood, we know that’s true too!

Image Credit: Social Media Examiner

Pinterest

For Pinterest Kim suggests 1 minute video clips, which we think is a great idea. The way to do it is to upload them on YouTube and then share on Pinterest.

Snapchat

Kim told us that you actually can pre-record, then upload to Snapchat Memories so you can add to Snapchat stories. The site will easily cut the video into 10 second increments.

What really made us sit up and pay attention, were Kim’s tips to get people to notice your content at Snapchat:

・ Have a set time

・ Schedule the event

・ Go tell it on the mountain (inform on social)

・ Use teaser videos to give a sneak peek

・ Email your list

Kim reassured us that you can do well even if your social presence is not as strong as you’d like it to be. This is something we all should keep in mind, looking at our overall marketing and how it can enhance our reach. Her friend had an e-mail list of 10K and then started to use Periscope. She told people about her LIVE videos via e-mail list and was able to sell 1,500 packages successfully with videos. We think that’s great!

Kim has these tips if you want to “blow up” your videos:

Moving people to your list is very important.

1. Deserve Wealth
2. Change Your Beliefs
3. Educate Yourself

Get organized and prepare checklists and worksheets. Kim does something we always suggest too, share your ethical bribe on your LIVE broadcast. She advises to make product demos whether it’s digital or not. Now with LIVE videos you can share your screen. Some professions such as Real Estate Managers, schools, restaurants can use videos for LIVE tours. For LIVE training events (webinar), Kim got 900 people on one.

Kim’s final tip is something we all need to keep in mind: don’t sell. SERVE! It’s hard but it’s true. If we do that we win.

Attending SMMW17 was a one-of-a-kind experience & it was amazing to hear what these experts had to say. It was an ideal opportunity to connect with top thought leaders. We’re happy to share these latest trends and tips with you, so your social media and content can be the very best that it can be. Let us know what changes or updates you plan to make, in the comments below! And stay tuned for part 2 coming in 2 weeks!

The post Key Findings from SMMW17 part 1 appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

We’ve talked to over 20 SMM experts, to understand how they attract traffic. They’re sharing their very best tips with you today. So open up your laptop’s Notepad and get ready to download some helpful inspiration. Because you’re going to attract potential customers and visitors to your site – ASAP!

To understand the tremendous amount of knowledge we’ve packed into this little blog post, first you should understand the questions we asked. We asked our SMM experts about their main non-social media traffic sources, whether or not they use paid channels or ads (and which ones), and how they monetize their traffic, leads and subscribers. We’ve segmented their answers into easy-to-digest pieces below.

What Are Some Main Non-Social Media Traffic Sources?

There are some tried-and-true non-social sources that plenty of social media experts still use.

Everyone knows that social media is a huge “draw” for your site. But don’t neglect the great opportunities offered by some of the non-social media traffic sources that are out there. Such as organic search. What’s this? Put simply, someone typing in “hotels in Rome, Italy” and what comes up in the search engine (under the ads). Do understand that since 2016, Google has been encrypting keyword data. This means that a keyword or keyword phrase someone used to find that great website they clicked on is now hidden when you look at your analytics. While Google originally reassured everyone this would affect about 10% of the searches, it actually seems to be more than this. Ben Anderson with cnctNOW, a social media consulting firm, likes to use the search method to obtain more traffic for his consulting service contracts.

Nevertheless, pay attention to using those keywords and keyword phrases when you create content for your site because they will help you to attract that lovely, organic traffic (even if you don’t quite know exactly who they are!).

Some experts truly agree that organic methods are the best. Robin French with Great Tasting Tours, focuses on print media and personal social networking. But she admits that “we are a start-up and must be very organic right now.”

E-mail marketing is one of the “oldie but goodie” sources to help increase your site traffic. Rodion from Casting360 likes to use email marketing, along with several other methods. If you choose this, always do remember to include direct links to your site, even specific site pages you think e-mail readers would find of interest. Keep in mind that the typical person now receives more than 200 emails a day in their personal e-mail InBox, so when you craft that e-mail marketing piece, you want to make it simply irresistible, something that says “you absolutely need to click here to learn more – right now!”

Referrals from other sites are another excellent source of site traffic, and sometimes depending on the site this can be just as “viral” as getting that wonderful, yummy social media site traffic that we all crave. Our best tip: take the time and do your homework, to find sites that reach people who would also visit your site and look for opportunities to do a guest blog post there. Then reach out to offer to write one, or hire a writer to do so for you.

Another classic way to get great site traffic is utilizing SEO. While the methods of making SEO work sometimes change, SEO itself is successful in so many ways. Aaron at DS9 Design prefers this, but he’s also open to traditional marketing methods too. “SEO and SMM serve as our foundation for traffic. Interestingly enough, we have found that small businesses looking for a website and online marketing services have been responding best to an old-fashioned cold call.”

Think outside the box. Look for ways to find your customers. Take a moment and think about where your customers shop, what other sites they visit? Where do they go when they are out in their communities? Well, that’s what Robin French did, she has found success not only with e-mail marketing but also with traditional “meet & greet” networking and print media too. “Yes, we use the local paper and ads through our tourism bureau.” Naveen Kumar also has a unique way to attract traffic, by responding to questions in online communities. This attracts people to his site, to fill out opt-in forms!

What Are Some Paid Channels for Ads?

Most social media platforms offer paid advertising opportunities designed to help you reach more people with your messaging.

Whether you are starting out in business or have been successful for years, it can feel daunting to start thinking about paying for ads on some of the online channels. Which ones are best? Let’s listen to our experts and their opinions about what they prefer for their businesses!

Raimy Aguilar from Prairie View A & M Foundation prefers paid search that they get through Google. “Yes, we use Google ads, which is free due to being a non-profit.” Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media, a Chicago-based web design and development team, says, “Search traffic is by far the most important channel for us. We also get a lot of direct traffic and a consistent flow from email. Social traffic rarely converts into leads.” That is true for many industries (but not all), so it’s important to be working several different strategies concurrently.  

Richard Massafra from Sit up Doggy Treats offers “good dogs” and owners a terrific treat through social media to help attract lots of traffic – they can get actually dog treats to pamper their pups while helping local K9 units! Eljona Kosta especially likes to use Google AdWords and Bing Ads too for her business. One great thing we can see about selecting the two of them is that Eljona’s eggs are not “just” in 1 basket for her traffic results! Tracey Essex from Cashback Loans has 2 favorites too: Bing & Yelp. Remember when you utilize Yelp, people get to see customer’s honest opinions about services and this is a highly trafficked site. Kathrine Ameca Sangalang uses both advertisements and affiliate links. She recommends “Propellerads” and has used them for selling per download. Luke has a WordPress site and has found success with traditional Facebook advertising, to sell a Cloud marketing tool. As you are starting to see, Facebook ads are a popular favorite and so are using some of the well-known search engines, such as Google Ads and even Bing Ads. Consider where your customers might be out there online & also look at what your competition is doing, because that will help you choose what is best for you!

Luca from PH Apps and Games likes “word of mouth and buzz marketing” to help make his business successful. His favorite go-to tool and resource? “Facebook Ads. Mostly, making customers download games and apps, but also selling products or services.” Mike Allton, a super cool social media marketer from The Social Media Hat, says that while he uses organic search and email to drive traffic, he also uses “Facebook ads regularly, Twitter or Instagram or Pinterest for testing,” and they they monetize with book sales and consulting, as well as affiliate advertising and some display ads. How do some of our other experts monetize?

How Do You Monetize Traffic, Leads and Subscribers?

It’s not enough to attract the traffic. You have to understand how to turn these visitors into customers, starting with leads and subscribers who wind up buying from you. Not sure how to get started? No worries, our experts have some wise advice to share with you!

Judy has a website and has found great success by monetizing her affiliate links. By choosing at least several affiliates too, this means you have several sources of income. Gene Holcombe likes to use both a newsletter and marketing e-mails, but his best source of income is from “A tie to room revenue.” Tressera Trujilo uses referrals and local networking groups, monetizing comes from “Low cost beta offers, then an upsell into residual programs.” Sheryl from Cirrus VA Assistant Services gets great referrals from both current and past clients, to monetize her business, Sheryl is “Still working on that. Right now, I run very lean and local on campaigns for my business.” Lisa Porter has a site, SparkAndProfit.com, and she also likes to monetize with affiliate links. Ali Mirza has a blog, isocialyou.com, “I convert website traffic to e-mail leads amd then offer them different online courses related to marketing and startups.”

And Mark Schaefer, one of the biggest influencers in the social media space (you can find him at BusinessesGrow.com), is a little bit unusual, for an expert in social media. He says, “I am a marketing consultant and I get leads from my public speaking activities. Essentially, mybusiness is 100% fueled by inbound leads driven by content. I have done a very little bit of promotion, but that is it. Almost no paid advertising, but I know I am unusual. I have 12 revenue streams but the largest ones – consulting, speaking and workshops – come from indirect monetization, meaning people pay me due to my reputation and authority, rather than me making a special offer or deal.” That goes to show that your marketing funnels and traffic channels can vary dramatically, even if you’re in the same type of business. It’s important to do plenty of testing and research to find out what works best for your brand.

We know this is a huge topic – one that can be discussed again and again. It’s like we’ve just touched the tip of an iceberg so to speak. But we hope that we have inspired you, to look for some organic sources of traffic and to get out there and research places to put paid ads. It is also so critical to harness that amazing power of the traffic you are sending your site, to figure out how to monetize it. So get ready to create some traffic & do business successfully with your site!

We love talking to people in the PromoRepublic community and the SMM world at large. Stay tuned for the next post!

The post 23 SMM Experts Talk Traffic appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

PromoRepublic was one of the exhibitors at Social Media Marketing World 2017 in San Diego. During our time there we got to speak to industry professionals about everything from the current state of social media marketing to what’s projected for the future. It all came down to one most essential ingredient that can make the biggest difference for your success. What’s that? It’s genuine interaction! Sounds simple and obvious, but is it really? Let’s see what the experts had to say.

What Is The Current State of Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses & What Could Be Improved Today?

As providers of social media services for small business, we are well aware of the pain points and pitfalls of trying to not only establish a social media calendar, but to find the pitch-perfect content that will engage fans and followers. There are several things to think about when establishing a social media presence for small businesses. And, thought leaders in the field helped us identify them. Gini Dietrich says, “Find out where your customers are hanging out and go there.”

Choosing the Right Channel

Bernie Borges

Bernie Borges, host of Social Business Engine podcast, says, “SMBs are struggling. There is so much coming at them with social media marketing.” He says that choosing their platforms is one of the biggest challenges. Sue B. Zimmerman agrees. She says, “Small businesses really need to be intentional about what they are doing and not do it just to check it off their list.”

Sue B Zimmerman

That means not investing time in channels where you don’t have an audience, for one. Choosing the correct channels isn’t hard, but it does take time and research. We talk about how to find your audience in our blog post and tutorial webinar. 

Jenn Herman

Jenn Herman from Jenn’s Trends says, “Not all brands need to be everywhere, but you do have more options than you used to.” Here at PromoRepublic, we recommend focusing your social efforts only on the channels where your customers are, rather than following the latest new fads.

Taking Social Media Marketing Seriously

Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich, CEO and founder of Arment Dietrich and awesome thought leader, says that ten years ago, social was “very much a fad,” and people thought it was just for kids. She says “There’s been a transition, but you still see a lot of hesitancy in using social. You see a lot of building it and forgetting about it. You see people building Facebook pages that nobody answers comments on.”

It’s important to be PRESENT when you’re running a social page. Lots of people even go so far as to set up a social media content generator and then they never even check the content that’s being posted. Gini says that social is time-intensive. Tools are OK, but if you do that a lot people can tell that’s what you’re doing.

[Tweet “If you’re going to do social media marketing, commit to it.”]

Zontee Hou, Senior Strategist at Convince and Convert, says, “The challenge with social media marketing for small business is that often it’s an afterthought or just one of many tasks to get done.” If you’re going to do social media marketing, commit to it.

Have a Strategy in Place

Bernie Borges says that more than anything, small businesses need to have a social media strategy. To the last point, he says “Those that don’t take it seriously and hand it off to an intern are putting their brands at risk. If they’re a big enough company to have employees, it’s important that they embrace employee advocacy.” It’s important, when developing a social strategy for small business, that you teach your employees to brand themselves so that it benefits your brand.

Sue B. Zimmerman agrees. She says, “They need to have a high level strategy and understand that if they’re sticking to their content strategy, visual strategy and their core brand messaging and brand values, they can have great success. Random posting leads to random results.”

Zontee Hou

Zontee Hou says, “As a small business owner myself, I know that it can be difficult to make time for creating content when there’s other work to be done. However, with smart planning and focus on the returns that social media can bring to a business, small businesses can and should be able to create a social media workflow that works for them. That’s where a social media strategy comes in. You have to figure out the type of content you want to post, the frequency and who’s going to do what. It’s a lot, but it’s well worth it.”

Post the Right Type of Content

Robert Bly

Robert Bly of Bly.com says that there is a lot of “content pollution” out there. Yes, you need to post on social, but you have to post the type of things that your audience won’t see as pollution or spam.

Koka Sexton

Koka Sexton, Industry Principal for Hootsuite, says that the largest gains are to be made from original content, and here at PromoRepublic, we agree.

Katie Lance from KatieLance.com says that social media marketing for small business can be a lot more efficient, but that in addition to a social plan (your strategy), you need a content plan. (Check out Katie’s key take-aways from SMMW17.)

Jenn Herman says, “Most people don’t know how to create content. Small businesses want to talk about themselves and that’s all they’re doing for content. They’re not solving an actual problem for their customer. They’re not building relationships with their customers. And social media is SOCIAL. You have to create content that forms a relationship.”

[Tweet “”Social media is SOCIAL. You have to create content that forms a relationship”. @jenns_trends”]

Ana Hoffman

Ana Hoffman from Traffic Generation Cafe says that the current content game for SMBs is “kinda broken, because they’re trying to promote their content on social media and that’s not working anymore.” She goes on to say that SMBs need to promote actual knowledge in bite-sized pieces. Ana suggests writing fewer blog posts and then re-purposing the content into different forms, for example, slide shares, and using the images for social media.

Jill Stanton

Jill Stanton from Screw the Nine to Five agrees, but thinks that SMBs are doing OK. She says, “There are so many small businesses and entrepreneurs just kicking ass on social media. They’re sharing the backstage of their life, they’re building relationships, they’re building that connection.” She goes on to say that businesses doing a poor job are ones that make it all about them. Jill says, “High quality stuff is about community, customers and highlighting transformations.” So how do you do that?

Visual Posts and Ads

Michael O’Neal

Overwhelmingly, everyone says that visual content performs best. Michael O’Neal from Solopreneur Hour podcast thinks that some SMBs are using ads brilliantly, but there is room for improvement. That means great visual posts, and other types of storytelling content that will draw audiences in. He says that organic reach continues to dwindle, and people are doing more with targeted Facebook ads and Instagram stories.

Videos

Like it or not, it looks like video is here to stay. While you shouldn’t post video exclusively, it should be part of your content mix, and live video is especially effective. It’s hard to do that on the fly, so practice with a few recordings before you take the leap and go live.

Templates

Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner says, “Quality of content can be a problem. Small businesses have to find someone, a person or tool, that will help them create professional content. There’s no other way.” He believes in templatization. Michael says, “Templates are made by experts, pros, and small businesses are not conscientious about exclusivity.” While that might be true, it’s best to pick content creation templates that are customizable so that you can change colors, fonts and add your logo.

Evergreen Content

Mari Smith

Mari Smith – one of the top social media thought leaders – is a big believer in posting the right content. She says, “A lot of small businesses AND major businesses are executing the same thing, like posting too many link posts on Facebook when video is what’s working better.”

Mari told us about a client of hers who wrote an evergreen blog post related to the client’s industry and it continues to bring a ton of ROI to the business. Coming up with some evergreen blog content you can share and boost on social is a good way to go, and should be a part of your social media calendar.

Choose the Right Resources and Tools

When you’re thinking about social media marketing services, you might be thinking about social media marketing AUTOMATION. The best tools not only allow you to maintain a social media calendar, but they also contain content creation examples you can use – the templates Michael was talking about. And, as Peter Parker Rich Brooks from Take Flyte says to not forget about other marketing tools, like search engine optimization and building your email lists. You have to have a full arsenal to execute a marketing strategy effectively.

What is the Future of Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses – Human or Automation?

Bernie Borges says, “[The future will be] a lot more automated. We’re going to need people to do strategy and creative work, but a lot of the busy repetitive stuff will be automated. Brands need to think about what tools they need to use to make things more automated, but also more engaging.”

Jill Stanton hopes that social will become more humanized, but clarifies by saying “I automate a lot of stuff on my page. I doubt that’s going any where, but you have to be there to answer comments and interact. Don’t talk at people, talk to them.”

Katie Lance

Gini Dietrich agrees with Bernie in that “our jobs are going to evolve – we’ve become sophisticated and AI and bots are going to change everything. We won’t get paid to schedule posts, but we’ll be paid to be creative.” Katie Lance says, “Some automation can be good when done right.”

Koka from HootSuite says that automation and a programmatic approach isn’t necessarily wrong, but that “the biggest benefits and largest rewards will come from small businesses that want to connect and engage with their community on a very human level. Ultimately, this is what drives brand loyalty for the company.”

Zontee Hou says, “The best social media marketing is engaging because it’s genuine. With that in mind, I think we’ll see the trends towards more visual continue. Video and photos help tell the story of the people behind a business.” So, it seems that the future will hold automation, but also more creative storytelling.

Ana Hoffman insists that the name of the social game is value, and she is right. Ana says, “What it boils down to is that when a business solves a problem for someone, that’s when they win.” Solving pain points and listening to your audience is much more important than inundating them with information they’re not asking for.

[Tweet “”When a business solves a problem for someone, that’s when they win.” @AnaTrafficCafe”]

Rich Brooks

Rich Brooks gives some advice on finding the right pitch or tone when posting to social. He says, “If you’re not posting regularly, it feels like you’re speaking a different language. When you get used to it you can develop your own voice. Social media is still about making connections with other people. So you have to be your own brand, you have to create your own cult of personality, and you have to put that out on social media and, hopefully, it will resonate with your audience.”
So, the future might contain all sorts of cool automation, but what we’re hearing from everyone is that it’s still quality over quantity, it’s still about the customers and it’s all about creating a distinctive and friendly brand.

Tying it All Together – What Can We Do To Prepare?

To achieve that mix of humanization and automation, you need the tools and resources that let you create and schedule all types of content to post on social media to save you time, but that also allow you to be creative and really tell the story of your brand.

More than that, you need to be customer-focused and realize that the more value you bring to social pages, the more you give social fans and followers what they need. Never forget that social media is still social, and listening to the needs of your people is the most important thing you can do.

The post Best of SMMW17: How SMBs Can Win on Social Media According to 15 Marketing Experts appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

1. Our clients are often beginners in this field. They need to understand how the social media world works, the basics, and what to start with.
2. The second reason is that the social media industry is constantly developing, improving, and changing. You need to keep your social “finger” on the pulse to understand how different your strategy will be the day after tomorrow.

I started writing for the Academy almost a year ago. But when I started researching the topic of “how to promote your blog”, I just wasn’t finding a whole lot of ideas with real how-to, actionable advice that would really help me find the best blog promotion tactics for PromoRepublic.

Statista says there are 5 proven ways in which bloggers promote their blog posts. I do agree with them, as this tactic has been proven in my content team as well.

PromoRepublic’s Blog Analytics

Before I start sharing the tactics I use here at PromoRepublic, I want to support my suggestions with proof. This is a comparison of our blog analytics. The difference is in 2 months.

You can see that we stabilized regular traffic to the blog and increased it more than double.

Blog Post Promotion on Social Media

• Include your blog link in your social media profiles

Before we start discussing how to promote your blog post and how to define best time for publishing, please, take a look at your page profile. If it is missing the link to your blog – add it immediately to the about section.

• Share your blog post on every social network you use

Even if you use Facebook predominantly, don’t neglect other networks. Did you know that Twitter is number one for link sharing? With PromoRepublic it is very easy to publish on several networks simultaneously. All you need to do is just prepare the blog post, choose the visual, write a caption, and attach the link to your blog post.

• Share your brand new posts more than once

No, you shouldn’t publish the same post 3 times a day, but it will be nice to schedule your best and evergreen pieces of content twice a week, for example. You will not be spammy, but you will definitely increase traffic to your blog. My piece of advice for you is to create an editorial calendar.

Take a look at this Twitter post by Amanda MacArthur. She says that she schedules one blog post 12 times for 12 months. In such a way, you get “fresh” traffic for the whole year! I haven’t tried this practice yet, but I definitely will!

• Re-promote your older, most successful content

Promote your best posts. Imagine, you have a great post published on Facebook 3 months ago. Now, publish it on Twitter today! Again, it’s very easy. PromoRepublic’s repost feature allows you to republish any type of content to any social network anytime.

• Experiment with captions to your blog posts

If you have decided to publish your blog post more than once, why don’t you change the caption to it? By the way, you can also experiment with visuals.

• Quotes

If you quote influencers in your blog posts, reuse that inspiration in your social messages. Don’t forget to tag them and ask for a re-share.

• Headlines

Headlines you write for your blog post may work even better than the title itself. Use them for your followers to understand what they should expect when they read your blog post.

• Description

You can change description of your blog post. Posts with only titles or bare links are not as engaging as the posts where you interact with your readers and encourage them to read what you have prepared for them.

• Experiment with GIFs

GIFs are becoming more and more popular visual type of content. Use a GIF instead of static image and boost number of your post clicks. You can learn how to create your own GIF here.

• Boost your blog posts

Facebook makes it very easy to boost posts you want larger audience to see. Even if your content is unique, visual is catching, and the caption engaging, a very small part of your followers and their friends will see it. With correct targeting, you will increase your chances to get more engagement and traffic to your blog. You can learn how to boost posts on Facebook here.

• Seed on Facebook Groups

Choosing several Facebook groups to engage with will help you target niche audiences that you may not reach otherwise. Not all of the people in the group will be fans of your page yet, so not only can you reach people outside your existing network, you can gain new fans and followers, too. One thing to note – Facebook groups hate anything they could construe as spam, so make sure you do several things before you start posting. First, make sure you engage with other people’s posts. Second, get permission from the group’s admin to post your link. Third, make sure your headline and description communicate the value of your post to the people in the group. Finally, make sure you include an eye-catching image. You can do that in PromoRepublic, as I’ve said, and really wow a whole new group of people.

• Hashtags

Hashtags are everywhere now, and they provide a great way for people to find content that interests them. You can use hashtags on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to provide relevant content that people see. Choose your hashtags wisely, and don’t use too many, or your post will look spammy.

• Build relationships with influencers and ask for re-shares

Just like it’s important to engage with Facebook groups, it’s also important to get to know other people in your industry and related industries. When you write a blog post that has content that might interest their network, you can leverage your relationship with them to promote your content. Just don’t abuse this privilege, and make sure you reciprocate when they ask you to share their content.

• When to post

Facebook

Saturdays–Sundays at 12–1 p.m.

Thursdays–Fridays at 1–4 p.m.

Wednesdays at 3 p.m.

Twitter

Wednesdays at 12 p.m. and 5–6 p.m.

Mondays–Fridays at 12–3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Any day of the week from 2–3 a.m., 6–7 a.m., and 9–10 p.m.

Linkedin

Tuesday–Thursday at 7:30–8:30 a.m., noon, and 5–6 p.m.

Sharing your content often enough and partnering with the right people who will help you promote your content will go a long way toward getting your blogs seen!

The post How PromoRepublic Doubles Views and Triples Conversions On Blog Shares appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

We hope you will help us share the good news by forwarding this blog post, and sharing it on social media. We’re looking forward to even more growth and even bigger updates in 2017! Stay with us, Content Hackers! We have a bright future ahead.

The post PromoRepublic’s Achievements 2016 appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.

What problem arises for many enterpreneurs when they create fan pages and start to promote their business on Facebook?

“What to publish and where get the content?” Did you have such problems?

Recently I have got to know about the PromoRepublic platform, which has such functionality as:

• offers ready templates (picture+text) for your industry(ies), both thematic and commercial ones;
• offers publications which are popular now in your field;
• has a collection of picture templates;
• offers a graphical editor;
• makes autoposting;
• shows a content calendar which contains your posts and some variants of other post publications;
• shows statistics of your publications;
• gives clues on promotion (for example, when you have not published anything for a long time).

So, the platform consists of the following tools set:graphical editor, calendar for the planning of publications, catalogue of templates for all occasions (new arrivals, discounts, quizs or even Hemingway’s quotes) and the system of articles research for sharing.

Only imagine:

You’ve opened a page with the interior settings theme. You’ve published a portfolio, started an advertising campaign, but you don’t know what to do further.

PromoRepublic can help you in this case.

Let’s see how it works.

First you should log in with Facebook. In the appeared window you can choose a page and one or several industries, according to your needs.

For what do you need this?

The platform will pick the appropriate publications basing on the industry you’ve chosen.

Then you’ll browse to the back office where (if necessary) you can add some Facebook and Twitter pages. (When I had a conversation with the platform owner, he said that Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, Linkedin would be added soon).

In order to delete a page, you should click on the “Dash” icon righward.

Press the “Choose” green button for the search of publications.

Here you can also find a guide with video lessons which will help you to get things straight.

(In my opinion, very useful and thoughtful on the part of the PromoRepublic creators).

After video lessons you can see the most interesting option – “Post ideas”.

Press it.

You’ll see the ready templates divided into categories and subcategories:

UP TO DATE:

• trends;
• holidays;
• days of the week;
• historical days;
• seasons.

SELL:

• sale;
• promotions;
• new;
• company news.

ENTERTAIN:

• workdays;
• lifehacks;
• interesting facts;
• quotes.

ENGAGE (my favourite category):

• polls;
• like+share;
• competitions;
• quiz.

CREATE (graphic editor).

SHARE (links to any feature stories becoming popular; for example, a lot of links from Adme.ru).

Choose any category and see what are more suitable for your industry. For example, let’s see a post from the “SELL” category.

What comes next?

Press on the post which you want to put on the list. Straight away a simple graphic editor will be opened. It works exactly as the “Canva” platform, but in Russian and has a choice of the Cyrillic fonts.

In order to change text, you should click on it. In order to edit an image, field, add a ribbon, circle, arrow, billet  and so on, just choose among the collection leftward and edit as you want. Also you can upload your own image.

What if you don’t need now a ready-made post? Suppose, you need only a cool designer picture and the text you will write by yourself.

Then you should open the “Ideas” tab leftward and here you’ll see a big collection of ready beautiful images with texts on all occasions, which can be edited easily. Press on the text and write your own.

It is not necessary to know how to work on Photoshop in order to make nice publications on your Facebook page. When you finish the editing, click on the “Preview” button at the top.

Now only one step is left before the post will be published.

On this step you can change a text status, publish a post now, place it in a queue or put in on the list. Pay your attention, on which page it will be published. You can check it at the top. The post will be published on the social networks the icons of which are active.

Easy, is not it?

If you’ve chosen several networks, the post will be published on all of them just by one click.

“Put it on the list” is understandable. Choose the time of publication for future use.

There is  another  additional cool option – “Queue”. Press the “Back” button. Open the “Settings” tab leftward.

Let’s suppose that your posts are published three times per day at the same time. Why should you set the time manually in the scheduler?

In the “Queue” settings you can make the everyday schedule, at which time the posts should be published. On default, all days of the week are marked. You should add the time of post publications.

After this, during the adding of the next post, you should press the “Queue” button, and a post will be published automatically in the nearest time, set in the settings.

This is not all.

There is a calendar which shows all your placed in a queue posts and recommended publications on each day (holidays,etc.).

For example, I’ve learnt that today will be Social Media Day :).

One another option of the platform is the tracing of statistics.

In this section you’ll find data about browsing, clicks, links, effectiveness and even the average reach on the page during the chosen period. You’ll be able to sort the publications by “likes”, comments, reposts.

There is a free 14-day trial period. After it’s expired, you’ll pay 30 dollars per month. Taking into account that it can easily replace a copy-writer, designer, content manager, to whom you’d need to pay salaries, 30 dollars is a favourable price.

In such a way, PromoRepublic analyses your theme, selects different news hooks, advices trends, offers ready competition variants, sends information and important reminders to your e-mail, offers a graphical editor, library of  pictures, a standard scheduler of posts or “Queue” (in order not to think about the time), calendar and statistics.

Also some new options are coming: search of platforms, thought leaders for publishing the content.

Test this platform, and if you consider the article to be a useful one, click on the “Like” button.

The post The Review of Platform which can Replace a Web Agency appeared first on PromoRepublic Blog | Insights for Franchise & Multi-Location Marketers.