Tag Archive for: technology

Why you need a Google My Business page

/in /by

What is a Google My Business page?

Google themselves explain it pretty well: “Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organisations to manage their online presence across Google, including search and maps.”

What does this actually mean? Well, this means that whenever you need to change business information, such as address, contact information, business hours, etc, all you need do is update your Google My Business information and it will update across all your Google touch points.

Google My Business also gives you the added bonus of a business profile on the search results page. For examples, when you search for a company, such as Air Social Marketing Agency, you will notice a business profile on the right hand side (desktop) of the Google results page. This is your Google My Business profile, looks good doesn’t it!

What are the benefits?

Visibility

  • Having a business profile appear on a search results page puts you in a significantly more prominent position than the other results (often your competition). It puts all your more key information front and centre, such as reviews, opening times, and contact details.
  • You will rank higher on search engines. Bear in mind having contrasting contact information on your different Google touch-points can cause Google to penalise your SEO score. A Google My Business page can help fix this.
  • People in the area will get location specific results, especially if you have multiple branches.

Credibility

  • In an increasingly competitive world, brand credibility is everything. A business profile appearing in search results puts you ahead of the competition. Combine this with positive reviews and a well coordinated social media presence, and new business will flock in.

Accessibility

  • Don’t have a great website? Hard to use on smaller devices? Having a Google business profile gives your potential customers a place to find essential contact information and reviews in a clear and accessible way.

How do I create a Google My Business page?

A Google My Business page is free to set up. You can find instructions on how to do this at: https://business.google.com

A Google My Business page is a must-have tool in your digital arsenal. If you need advice or help setting this up, or coordinating this with the rest of your digital strategy, why not give us a call, we’ll be happy to help.

Get in touch

The rise and rise of the Micro Influencer

/in /by

One of the golden rules of advertising is ‘Know Your Audience’, well how better to do that than by involving them in your marketing strategy?

One of the latest trends you may have heard banded about is ‘micro influencers’, but what exactly are they? Well, in essence, micro influencers are social media users that inhabit the intersection of civilian consumer and minor celebrity; commonly categorised as people with a following of around 1000-10,000.

The benefits of using micro influencers are numerous; they are often experts in their chosen category and have garnered a large following for this reason, yet have a following localised to their particular field. For example an artist on Instagram may have a large following of people, the majority of which will also have an interest in art; by using micro influencers you are accessing a ready-made targeted audience. Being endorsed by a micro influencer is also a solid way to build credibility into your campaign; a good Google review is always welcome but it doesn’t have the impact of a well-known expert recommending your product.

There is an argument that using micro influencers may also be more beneficial than celebrity endorsement. With fewer followers micro influencers are able to maintain a higher rate of engagement with their followers, therefore promoting discussion on their posts; on Facebook, for example, the more an individual interacts with their friends and followers on a post the higher the organic reach. Not only could micro influencers save you money on promoting posts, but they also come without the hefty price tag of celebrity endorsement.

In fact, research shows that although brand exposure would be increased by using people with huge followings, for most businesses it’s irrelevant (Takumi, 2017). This couldn’t be more true for the majority of businesses; it just doesn’t make sense for Kim Kardashian to be endorsing a deli in Brighton, however, a micro influencer from Brighton who networks online with other people in Brighton, would be an ideal person to advertise with, despite having 1/100th of the followers.

Not only can micro influencers benefit you, but you can benefit them. By offering them to sample your product you create content for both parties and can endorse each other in the process, it’s a win-win situation.

At Air Social we understand the importance of knowing your local area, creating relevant and engaging campaigns through cost effective methods. To find out more get in touch.

Social Media: The Goldman Sachs Story

/in /by

In 2008 the landscape of worldwide banking was not a pretty picture. In the midst of what many economists called the most serious financial crisis since the great depression, ‘banking’ had become a dirty word. Although Goldman Sachs had initially benefited from the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007, this was what ultimately triggered a worldwide financial crisis leading to the company being bailed out by the US Government; it’s safe to say that Goldman Sachs were not held in high esteem by the general public.

2008 was also the year Barack Obama won the US Presidential election; having gone from a relatively unknown Democrat to the leader of the free world in a relatively short amount of time. His success has been credited in part to the use of social media in his campaign; finally, social media marketing had truly arrived.

Understandably, due to the financial climate and their poor public image, the fairly conservative Goldman Sachs were reluctant to make the leap to social media but, after much convincing from their marketing department, leap they did.

Allegedly what changed their mind is that the firm’s marketing department searched the phrase “Goldman Sachs” on YouTube and turned up more than 34,000 videos, none of which had been posted by the firm; they realised that people would be talking about their brand regardless of their actions; there was a lesser risk in having an online presence rather than not at all. As head of brand marketing and digital strategy, Lisa Shallet puts it: “We’ve learned that we have to invest in telling our story online and protecting the Goldman Sachs brand.”

Nevertheless, the initial Goldman Sachs online output may have actually alienated people. In 2013 The Banker’s Umbrella commented on the bank’s Twitter activity: “what Goldman is doing is conducting a good old fashioned direct marketing campaign. All they are doing is giving you an advertising brochure and delivering it through social media”, they were simply drip-feeding their Twitter followers with a standard ad campaign, 140 characters at a time.

Even with the backdrop of corporate impersonality, Goldman Sachs is already particularly faceless; it has no branches so there is no customer and community interaction. Maybe this explains their initial failure online; Goldman Sachs failed to grasp was that ‘social media’ is exactly that, social. Slowly, Goldman realised that as it turns out, having no social media presence is bad, but having a bad social media presence is worse.

Luckily for Goldman Sachs they’ve had a turn around.

Now, in 2017, Goldman Sachs actually excel at producing shareable content, regularly uploading accessible videos and blogs about current events and popular culture – OK, so maybe not entirely relevant to the Goldman Sachs brand, but a step in the right direction none the less.

Last week they even tweeted their own #TBT (as pictured below); Goldman is finally taking off the corporate mask to reveal the real people who work for the bank – and it working. They now have well over half a million followers and have slowly expanded to social media channels they feel compliment their brand, engaging with consumers on LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.

By 2015 90% of Goldman’s marketing activity was online, vital for a company with no physical high street presence, and now in 2017 that figure is undoubtedly higher. Amanda Rubin, managing director and global co-head of brand and content strategy at Goldman, has said that “from a brand’s perspective, digital platforms offer us an enormous amount of data. By using that data, we are able to know what is valuable, what is interesting, and what is imperative.” We couldn’t agree more, as recognised Facebook partners we are in the lucky position of having access to valuable census data and so experience first-hand the influence this data can have on a campaign and, moreover, the impact that carefully targeted and relevant social media can provide.

Why Bespoke Business Software is Vital for our Company

/in /by

As a company that specialises in lead generation it is vital that none of our own leads is ever dropped. We at Air Social use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application to avoid that from ever happening. However, many CRMs come ready made with a huge amount of unnecessary apps that a compact team such as ours simply doesn’t require. With such an unwieldy amount of apps a CRM designed to organise a company may actually make matters more complicated, with actions getting lost in the system.

This is where Bespoke Business Solutions come in. They allow us to mould the software we use to suit our business, rather than force us to adapt to generic software. The CRM they have provided us with precisely does what we need it to do for example to assign and reassign roles, track new and completed tasks and keep up with each other’s meetings. As we work with many clients being able to assign hours is very useful and being able to log hours spent on certain clients is absolutely essential to the way we bill clients.
This level of organisation makes sure every lead is followed up, and nothing gets forgotten. Obviously for a business with more employees it would be less relevant to have a joint calendar with everyone’s meetings in it, but for our team its perfect.

On top of these benefits, having a custom made system it means if our business changes we have the ability to call up and alter the system. It is customisable and free flowing with our own business.

It also avoids some of the main pitfalls of generic CRM applications. The system that BBS have made toes the line between an overly simple interface that will quickly be outgrown by an expanding business and cumbersome systems where you have to go through multiple screens to process transactions. With BBS there is no refreshing, no scrolling up and down, minimal transactions from screen to screen – yet it delivers the same service.

So next time you’re wondering what the secret to our success is… Well, it’s a secret. But you can be sure our fantastic CRM from Bespoke Business Software plays a big part in the smooth functioning of our company!

Find out more about Bespoke Business Software here.

This Year, Keep Your Social Media Healthy.

/in /by

At this time of year all anyone seems to be talking about is their New Year’s Resolution; the latest fitness regime or tasteless clean eating diet, but here at Air Social we are more concerned with keeping our social media profiles healthy. So here, as a belated Christmas gift to you, are some tips from the experts (us).

1. Maintenance.
There’s only one thing that looks as sloppy as a lack of internet presence and that’s an out of date, underutilised internet presence.
An unkempt social media profile is a bit like bad dental hygiene, it needs looking after, otherwise people will literally stay away from you. If a Google search were to show two similar business and one was fully up to date – and the other hadn’t posted since 2012, some may well assume the business no longer exists. Frequent posting also keeps your business in the forefront of people’s minds so next time they need the services you provide – you’ll often be the first they come to. So, like brushing your teeth, social media has to be maintained daily – and no, not just the once.

2. You get out what you put in.
What happens when you eat junk food? You may put on weight. What happens when you post spam? You will lose credibility and your potential customers will lose interest. Finding meaningful, relevant content that will keep your customer engaged can seem like an ongoing slog, but it’s worth it.

3. Stay connected.
It may seem obvious to some, but so many small businesses still fail to have a cohesive set of social media profiles. By not linking your website to your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram you make it harder for customers to keep up to date with your business developments and conversely by not making your website accessible from social media you may lose out on real business.

4. Engage.
The clue is in the name. ‘SOCIAL’. The beauty of social media is that it gives an informal platform to listen to your customers’ needs, solve their issues and answer any queries; failure to respond to your online customers will simply be viewed as bad customer service.

There are many ways in which your social media profiles may not be selling to their maximum potential, and for most people even the four things listed may be a lot to juggle on top of running a company. For more advice and information on how Air Social can help you and your business call 01483 789 434 or email alex@airsocial-build-com.stackstaging.com

“Man has made his match”: Artificial Intelligence in the Real World

/in /by

‘Artificial intelligence’ is here to stay, there’s no doubt about it. Now, we at Air Social are all for innovation, in fact we thrive off it. But when everyone is jumping on the artificial intelligence bandwagon, we think we need to ask: when is it appropriate? And how much is too much? I mean, we’ve all seen Blade Runner after all.

For example, there’s a lot to say for a human touch, for example, what could be better than a smiling barista taking your order before handing you a hot cup of coffee with a delicately poured pattern floating on the top?

When we think of a good customer service experience, the words friendly and helpful spring to mind, also, the ability to cater for all needs; a bespoke service if you will. So what happens when that customer service gets replaced with a faceless app on your mobile phone? Well that’s exactly what Starbucks have decided to do.

Obviously their app has its perks (I can’t count the number of times my order of dry soy cappuccino, extra chocolate on top and two shots of sugar free caramel syrup has gone awry) but it’s an odd move from the company so intent on distancing themselves from their reputation as a faceless corporation, for example their ongoing campaign to put the customer’s name on the cup. This was a really great move for Starbucks back in 2012 and has inadvertently worked as a viral campaign too; not only do people frequently share their misspelt names online but also reminds us of the humanity of the baristas; we find ourselves actually celebrating the charm of human error. The app, although useful, completely contrasts the more human brand that Starbucks had started to create. It seems that Starbucks is using the right technology but with the wrong effect.

Now take the Amazon Echo which uses the Alexa operating system, the personal assistant Siri wishes she could be; Alexa has been credited as being life-changing for people with decreased mobility or the visually impaired. For example, one can change the thermostat or book a taxi without leaving your chair – or even looking at a screen. Things as insignificant as tuning a radio seem so simple to most but are difficult when you have a visual or physical impairment. With the Echo and Alexa that issue is eliminated.

Again, the technology comes with its pitfalls: last week a San Diego TV station came under criticism after a report about a girl who ordered a dollhouse via her parents’ Amazon Echo caused Echoes in viewers’ homes to also attempt to order dollhouses.

With Google and Samsung following Alexa’s lead, this mode of artificial intelligence is undoubtedly set to be sticking around. Of course there are simply some things that can’t be faked, that includes human connection, creativity and, as Alexa proves, just a dash of common sense; but despite this we can’t wait to see what lies ahead for artificial intelligence and what that means for the digital media landscape.

The continued rise of Facebook: can anyone stop it?

/in /by

It’s no coincidence that the fall of Vine coincided with the ability to put videos on Instagram. This happened only a year after the photo sharing giant was bought by Facebook. Now it’s Snapchat under attack as Instagram has launched its own ‘story’ function that mimics the whole concept of the app, but conveniently tucked into a corner of the Instagram interface. Rather inconveniently for Snapchat, it’s only growing in popularity.

The reason for this is quite simply that Instagram is a much more open platform; the beauty of apps like Instagram and Twitter is the ability to gain an insight into the lives of people we wouldn’t normally encounter. We can get up to the minute insights into what the Kardashian’s are wearing or the latest diet fad is first hand, something that is much more difficult on Snapchat.

Of course there are benefits to Snapchat; Snapchat isn’t based on likes or followers so there is no scope for fake news to be spread, features such as ‘Discover’ are heavily vetted so that content is of a certain quality and, most relevant to us, advertising is integrated into the customer experience so it is un-intrusive whilst also interactive.

There is a reason for this. “Snapchat makes discovery of people who aren’t in your phone book extremely difficult because they believe peer-to-peer sharing is stickier than a so-called influencer model,” says Rob Fishman, co-founder of Niche, a company that connects brand with social media influencers.

The combination of this and Snapchat’s venture into wearable tech means there may be a future for the app but whether it will able to hold its own against the Facebook empire remains to be seen, as in 2017 Instagram’s influence is set to grow even further. In terms of advertising Instagram is predicted to usurp Twitter, meaning Facebook will hold the gold and silver medals in the social media marketing race, a truly astonishing feat. Luckily for Twitter, Facebook has already adopted some of the character traits of Twitter, such as hashtags and an increased ability to share content and news, but has never been able to mimic the balance of intimacy and worldwide scope that Twitter delivers – it remains safe for the time being.

In our expert opinion Snapchat remains a contender – for now. And there is no doubt that Twitter will be around as a major social media platform for a long time to come, but Facebook ultimately reigns almighty.

‘16 Going On ‘17: What to Expect in Digital Marketing in the Coming Year

/in /by

In the year that has seen Donald Trump become president,  said goodbye to Ziggy Stardust and Severus Snape and, of course, seen families country-wide feud over Brexit, 2016 has been a year of mass upheaval. But how has the world of digital marketing changed?  Well, most obviously we have witnessed the continued rise of social media. In the US Presidential Election race we have seen how crucial social media can be; Trump attributes much of his success to his large social media presence, particularly on twitter. However, it’s not only been his social media presence but the presence of Twitter ‘bots’ that automatically tweeted pro-Trump propaganda and used hashtags to firstly infiltrate the Clinton support and then use the platform to smear her. Social media has been intrinsic to the success of many other unlikely campaigns; take the recent example of A-Level student Nick Jablonka’s fake John Lewis advert which went viral after social media users mistook it for the real thing.

The power of visual media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest also continue to grow, where many consumers review and recommend products, and, with the continued popularity of audio and audio visual media such as podcasts and YouTube vlogs added into the mix, the power of word of mouth between consumers cannot be underestimated.

However, next year’s innovations look set to be on a whole new level.  It’s now commonplace to see advertisers using Snapchat, making it possible to ‘try on’ a new lipstick from your own home, or transport a person into the scenery of an upcoming blockbuster.  In 2017 experts predict this trend will develop into companies creating more specific apps to immerse the individual into their product. Nevertheless this is just a small dent in comparison to the impact virtual experience is going to make.

The dawn of virtual reality is upon us and there’s no wondering why people want to utilise it for their marketing strategies. A recent survey says that 90% of business owners now say they prefer personalised content rather than mass outreach. It’s becoming easier and easier to target advertising so to stand out content will need to be more unique, of higher quality, and as engagingly interactive as possible in 2017.

In the current digital landscape, engagement is everything, and marketers succeed when their audience not only consumes content but also enjoys and acts upon it, which is why interactive content will be so important going forwards. The facts back it up; static content generates conversions 36% of the time whereas interactive content generates conversions moderately or very well 70% of the time. So expect to be inundated with ground-breaking apps and virtual reality experiences and in the coming year.

But the innovation doesn’t stop there, not only will consumers be immersed within technology but they will be wearing it. After a slow start for wearable technology 70% of consumers now say they are ‘ready for wearable technology’, giving yet another platform for advertisers to take advantage of.

To summarise, marketing in the new year is only going to become more diverse; we predict that the tried and tested methods such as social media advertising will still has its place in digital, but new developments such as interactive content and virtual experience are going to enrich the digital marketing landscape. It’s up to marketers to embrace the changes and approach marketing in 2017 holistically.

Social Media is the heart of all marketing.  To understand how social media can impact your business with Air Social’s tried and tested social media lead generation expertise, contact alex@airsocial-build-com.stackstaging.com or come and meet the team at our Guildford office for a complimentary social media training session.

 

 

 

team@airsocial.co.uk
01483 789 434
Leapale House,
Leapale Lane, Guildford,
Surrey, GU1 4LY

Newsletter Subscribe

Follow Us

Google PartnerMicrosoft Partner

Contact Us