Archives for January 2019

We are all aware and witnessing how technology and social media platforms have turned into an inseparable portion of our everyday lives. It is virtually unimaginable to spend more than several hours without scrolling our newsfeed or looking up through the stories on Instagram.

According to some figures, more than 2/3 of people over sixteen years of age own at least one profile registered on the mainstream social networks. Of course, no one can oppose the fact that the vast majority of these users are simply schoolchildren who use these social media networks for various purposes.

How to use social media for education? 

• Class Facebook group. Students and teachers can share knowledge about the course. This a great way for students to communicate with their peers outside of the classroom.
• Student blogging. This helps students practice their writing skills
• YouTube. Many instructional and education videos can be found on this site.

Social media in education can be a helpful tool rather than considered a distraction when used wisely. Global fame and hunger for social media can be beneficial, so the question we raise today is how we can use social media to improve the overall education process.

In academic circles, social media platforms generate innovative solutions for exchanging ideas and working together with teachers and peers. Using it in class or in academic settings fosters content integration on multiple levels and it allows students to ask questions making them more motivated to engage online than simply visiting a professor in person. Social media platforms serve as alternative approach for shyer students to voice up their opinions and join the community. Furthermore, by being attracted to various social media feeds or hashtags focused on a current matter or posted by experts in the field, students can get a better insight about the world around them in a language closer to their mindset.

This information can be used in a variety of class discussions:

• research projects
• writing assignments
• field trip story telling
• book or movie reviews
• authoring news story reportage etc.

The result – having learning environment that not only overcomes certain barriers, but also boosts communication building and critical thinking among peers.

Another great perk of social networks is the availability of information on how and where to continue education for high school students. Many of them have a desire to live in another country, study abroad, become experts in some specific field and grasp every possible chance to fulfil their dreams. Social media platforms are rich with much useful data on available curricula, scholarships and grants as well as real time info about living and studying costs.

So, all in all, the first and foremost advantage of these platforms is communication. You can make a connection with anyone and anywhere at any given time. Students can be active contributors and establish their own communities with shared interests, approaches, events as well as topics for discussions.

How To Use Social Media For Education

Practical experiences differ in different regions, education levels, countries and age groups, however, the most common ones are:

• Class Facebook group – Creating a Facebook group for each class is an awesome idea. Students and teachers can post projects, make announcements, post videos, photos or resources and reminders about important deadlines. Parents can also access it to follow what is going on in the class.
• Student blogging – As the Latin phrase goes – “Repetitio est mater studiorum” (Repetition is the mother of study), so student writing gets better the more they do it. Unlike traditional writing assignments, blogs create unique ground for students to write and exhibit their writing, thus forming a stronger bond with one another, carefully practising their syntax, spelling, language and grammar skills while doing so.

– Topical Twitter feed – Twitter is made for interaction. Teachers should encourage their students to interact with others via Twitter and discuss a particular lesson. Many organizations and experts also offer live Twitter chat sessions aimed to boost student participation.

– Student videos on YouTube – YouTube is a brilliant choice to watch lectures and resources aimed at helping students to learn something. Creativity can give us plenty of options, so instead of watching video material created by others, teachers can support students in using social media to create student content online and further develop their skills.

Do’s and Don’ts of social media for students and educators

Do’s

• Always set a boundary between personal and professional social media space
• Do make sure that strict privacy settings are in place for schools’ activities and that those settings are reviewed frequently
• Always post positive and helpful content
• Always quote references and give credits to authors

Don’ts

• Both students and teachers should not say anything on their social media profile that wouldn’t be said in class.
• Educators shouldn’t get too relaxed and all chatty with students. This may lead students into thinking you’re available at any time of day for this. Be available for them as much as possible, but always keep it professional.
• Students and educators alike should not share too much on school blogs and class groups. Personal photos or activities should be avoided as much as possible.

Advantages of using social media as a tool in education

Social media platforms are the home of an immense pool of different information interconnected with other resources through millions of hyperlinks. This means that aside from having fun, students can discover answers to some very important questions by using them. Starting from preparing for the lessons, digging up some data or survey results and up to getting help from others, they can become the pillar of support students needed.

New technologies have caused a momentous revolution in education and social media exposure has turned into a great driver for students to strive for better results. Up-to-date teachers grasp these contemporary movements in education and understand the vital role social media represents in students’ lives, so by combining these networks with educational content they come to the perfect solution.

When asked, students easily admit how platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Twitter, boost their learning and how they make it more exciting to develop a discussion over a topic through chatting rather than doing it in class. On the other hand, teachers can use social networking to foster collaboration among students and develop student relationships by providing a comfortable channel of communication.

Alumni are at the end of each education cycle. By using social media networks to stay associated with this group, we are indeed contributing towards a stronger community. Thus, schools playing smart can promote continuous learning opportunities for ex-students and endorse their successes – hence creating a really powerful marketing tool within itself.

Let’s not forget the numbers

Many studies and researches in North America have shown the magnitude of the use of social media in schools. The following numbers only support the efforts of building capacity in schools to use social media for the development of the educational system:

• 96% of students with internet access actively use social media
• 75% of 7^th – 12^th graders possess at least one social media profile
• 73% of middle and high school teachers use cell phones in classroom instruction
• 63% rise in the amount of time kids ages 2-11 spent online
• 59% of students active on social media discuss education topics online
• 50% of those who discuss education topics online talk explicitly about school related assignments
• 35% of schools promote establishing student or teacher-run blogs
• 59% of teachers say their students use social networking for educational purposes
• 27% of schools have created an online community for teachers and administrators

These figures show that social media can also serve as a professional development platform for educators as well. Majority of teachers report that a great deal of the time spent online is aimed at looking up and sharing resources with their students on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. The percentage of daring teachers or professors ready go above their comfort zone and engage through social media is much higher compared to only several years ago. Creativity brings unlimited potentials, both for educators and students alike.

Related Questions

Can social media be used in colleges and universities? – Student college experience and social life plays a big part in choosing where to study for prospective freshmen. By having the ability to be prompt, visual and potentially promoted by and for the students themselves, social media offers the best capture of student experience possible and therefore it should be used hand in hand with more traditional marketing models such as college open days, direct email newsletters and other promotional activities.

Can social media in education be misused? – Negative aspects of social media in the classroom are a fact and pose a certain challenge for educators. Unprofessional or offensive public postings from personal accounts containing foul language or targeting someone’s privacy are just the tip of the iceberg. However, all of these can be prevented or overcome with thoughtful interaction among students and teachers. The most practical way to do so is to establish or review the school’s social media policy and even ask parents to sign a form to express their consent when it comes to what their children can post online.

Can parents be involved in social media interaction? – As time goes by, more and more parents are active on mainstream social media platforms. Educators can also take advantage of this fact and connect with parents through the use of the networks and provide them with the possibility to track their children’s progress in relation to the study material and topics discussed.

The truth is: marketing, especially as a new artist, is not an easy task. You have to constantly put yourself out there in order to get fans, gigs, and promote your new songs. You have a million things to do on each given day. The good news is, marketing is easier in the 21^st century than it was in the 20^th century.

Back in the 20th century, when radio was the only marketing medium, musicians would take their discs to radio DJs. These ‘gatekeepers’ would then decide which songs to give airplay. Thankfully, with the age of the internet, you don’t have to deal with these gatekeepers. In this guide we discuss the tactics that top marketing agencies use to promote music on social media. Let’s get started.

How to use social media to promote music? The best way to promote your music on social media is by creating profiles on the right platforms, creating content that shows you in action or behind the scenes, engaging with your audience, and then promoting your new songs and tours.

One of the most important things in a musician’s life is promoting music. And though you might be busy on Bandcamp or Soundcloud, it is important to build a following on social media. You have to take advantage of the over 2 billion Facebook users or the over 1 billion Instagram users. Here are some tips to help you promote your music like a marketing pro.

Pick the right social media networking platform

By the end of 2018, there were more than 20 social media sites. But, not all of them are ideal for music promotion. The first thing you should do is choose the right platforms. Here are some platforms you sign up on:

Twitter

Twitter is a great platform to get you started. It allows you to have real-time conversations with fans. You can discuss current happenings in the music industry or your latest songs. However, it is important to note that because Twitter is a ‘right now’ sort of platform; it is the worst platform for click throughs and engagements.

For example, when you post your latest songs, chances are you will get a few click-throughs at that moment from fans online at that particular time of day. But, by the end of the day, your tweet will be long buried and you won’t get any click through.

Use Twitter to keep your ears on the ground for what is happening on the music scene. Follow and retweet tweets from artists you admire in the industry. Create great content to get valuable followers.

Facebook

What goodies does Facebook offer to the music industry? Well for starters it has over 2 billion active users. This powerful platform has more advertising options for artists than other social media platforms. Your next step is to create a Facebook account.

With Facebook you can share anything from live videos to photos to text posts. Once the content is live you can pay to advertise. Facebook advertising allows you to pick your target audience by age, profession and more.

On the downside, this platform can be quite distracting. Several times I have caught myself going through profiles of my friend friends. Facepalm. Remember, you have a million things on your to-do list. Focus!

YouTube

Most artists use YouTube as their primary platform for uploading their music. To build a following on YouTube, you need to create a professional account. Your subscribers will get a notification every time you upload a new video.

It is important to note that YouTube uses an algorithm to determine which videos to rank high. If you want this algorithm to favor your channel you have to create and upload quality videos constantly.

Instagram

The last platform on the big 4 social media platforms for music promotion is Instagram. It is one of the best and easiest platforms to promote music. Instagram has over 1 billion users. You can engage your potential fans through live videos, hashtags, and Instagram stories. Use hashtag research tools to find the right hashtag related to your genre of music. Create stories around these hashtags and engage with your audience.

Optimize your profiles

Today, 90% of musicians are online. Surprisingly, only a few have optimized their profiles. Don’t make this dumb mistake. When potential fans look you up, they are likely to find all your social media profiles. Having an optimized profile on each network is of utmost importance. To optimize your profiles do the following

• Use the correctly sized profile picture. Yes, I said it, profile picture. One professionally shot picture across multiple social media platforms. See, there is a problem in using different images on different platforms. It lacks professionalism and makes you look messy. Plus you want fans on one platform to recognize your profile immediately they use another platform. The only platform that you can use a different profile picture is Facebook.
  • With Facebook use the cover video feature. This awesome feature allows you to upload a clip of your music video, use the latest, as your profile picture.
• Fill out your bio. Yes, your bio is important. Make sure you use the right keywords. Also you can highlight your tour dates, latest singles and albums.
• Keep your profile update. Regular updates helps to keep your fans engaged.

Create content

The next step is to decide the content ideal for each platform. Before creating content, you need to understand your audience. There are over 4 billion social media users. So, who are you singing to? Who is your target audience? What is their age and profession? By defining this, you will be able to come up with the right content. The types of content you can create include:

Video content: If you want to convert potential fans fast, then create video content. People find it easier to scroll and watch videos than read a long article. Though videos are great at converting, it is also the hardest content to create. You need to have a compelling storyline, great shooting equipment and lots of energy.

If you are new, you can start a video series documenting your journey as a new artist. People appreciate reality TV; otherwise we would not have shows such as the Survivor series or Keeping up with the Kardashians. Document your successes and failures. Also remember to regularly upload and share your music videos.

Text content: This content type revolves around creating articles. People love learning about new things. You can create various articles that aim to educate your audience. For example, if you are a great piano player, you can write articles on pianos. Make sure the articles are at least 1000 words long. Google loves in depth articles. Also include keywords.

Once you’ve created a post, upload it on your blog. Then share it across text-based social platforms such as Reddit, Medium, and LinkedIn. Let’s be honest: the traffic from these sites won’t be much but sharing on these sites helps build your brand’s credibility.

Image content: This content is the easiest to create. Your need to share high-quality images. Tell your stories through images.

Engage your audience

Next, let people know about your new content. There are two strategies you can use to reach your target audience; organic and paid.

Organic strategy

This is the best method for artists starting their music career. It involves self-promotion using the available tools.

Facebook: As we stated earlier, Facebook is one of the best social media platforms to promote music. For this platform you need to create a page. A Facebook page will give your brand a profession look plus you get access to awesome marketing features. To successfully promote your music on this platform, you need to use the rule of 3:1; 3 funny videos or informational posts and 1 promotional post. This important rule helps you not be overly self promotional.

You can engage your audience through contest. For example; create a contest asking people to upload themselves singing your latest song. Giveaway tickets to your next show to the most liked videos. With such a contest you will find your fans sharing this contest with their friends which in the end will bring you new fans.

YouTube: For this platform, experts recommend that one should upload videos regularly. This helps to keep your account active and Google loves to rank active accounts. Also, make sure to upload the same day of the week, this way your subscribers know when to expect new content. Also use YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This means you use keywords (words and phrases) that people look for.

It is also important to engage with other YouTubers. You can do this by commenting on their videos or channels. You can also reach out to them on other social sites. Other YouTubers can help you gain new fans by sharing your content on their pages.

Another strategy you can use on YouTube is by using the music channels. These channels are used to post music of similar genres. For example, if your genre is soul music, look for soul music channels on YouTube. This strategy will give you instant access to your target audience. Remember to check on your analytics. This will help understand your audience better.

Twitter: As we said earlier, Twitter is best for engaging in current trends. You can use this platform to show yourself in action. Post photos of yourself before, during, and after a show. The best way to get user engagement is by sending shoutouts to attendees tweeting about your performance during your break. This idea may seem simple but many artists have used it to engage their audience during their shows. This creates an even stronger bond.

To get user-generated content, encourage your fans to tag you with photos of the event and then repost the images. These unique tips will gain you a mass following within a short period.

Newsletters: Oh yes, newsletters still work like a charm! Many business owners, especially artists, ignore the power of newsletters. Studies show that people who use newsletter make more money than those who don’t. On all your platforms, before giving your fans any frees stuff, have an email widget for them to sign up for your newsletters. Every time you release a new song, send out an email notifying people on your list. Chances are 70% of them will buy your music.

Paid strategy

Once you start earning from your organic strategy, you can set aside some money for paid marketing. This strategy involves

Facebook Advertising

After several months of organic reaches, you now have some loyal fans. These are your brand ambassadors. The truth is, you don’t want to use Facebook advertising too early into your music career. No one knows your brand. It won’t work.

When starting with Facebook advertising, use short content. Remember, these people are new to your brand and most people often snub new artists. Your intention on the first marketing campaign is just to raise awareness of your brand. On the second campaign create longer content than the first campaign.

By now, people are a bit familiar with your brand. You will find that people will watch your videos for more than three seconds and a huge percentage will like your page. They are now aware of your existence and ready for your next campaign.

On the third campaign, promote your music. A majority of your new fans are likely to share it on their walls and pages. Every few months, rinse and repeat this Facebook advertising strategy to promote music.

Using Influencers

Social media influencers are people with a huge number of followers. You can find influencers in your music genre by using sites such as inzpire.me, FameBit, and Dovetale. The influencer will charge to share your content with their audience based on two factors. One, the size of their audience and two the engagement level.

Related Questions

How often should you post on your social pages?

Moderation is key. You don’t want to overwhelm your fans. Remember, frequent, annoying ads can make them unfollow or unlike you. Here are social media best practices for posting.

Facebook: Three to seven times a week

Twitter: Three times a day (unless it is a thread)

YouTube: At least once a week

Instagram: Two times a week

What other online forums are ideal to promote music?

Some of the best music forums to promote music include The Coli, KTT (Kanye To The), Reddit, Genius, and Snapchat.

As artists and musicians, we want maximum exposure for our production, and social media is the leading “free” way of getting our work to the world stage. This guide will cover the aspects of how social media is used to promote music by going in-depth with concepts used by leading marketing agencies to break musicians into the top charts, with the power of creating a loyal fan base.

How can a musician utilize social media to push their products? Today’s musicians are using social media to build anticipation, connect with fans and generate revenue in unique and new ways. The products range from mixtapes to singles and even occasional traditional albums.

Facebook

Invite fans who like your Facebook posts to follow your artist page.

Facebook is the best option when you are starting your music advertising functionality the most diverse and influential of all the platforms. You can update all content whether live video, text posts and even images. After posting the content, Facebook allows to a premium advertisement on your page and content to a select targeted audience, which is a convenient way to reach viewers.

It is a less known function on Facebook although a precious one. It allows you to grow your following with people that have already shown interest in you, it more of cold-calling approach.

On your artist page check for previous posts (well-performing) click on the ‘likes’ and you’ll see a list of the fans who have interacted with the post. Invite those people who have liked that post to your fan page. This is a function worth spending your time going through your old posts.

You shouldn’t cannibalize your Facebook posts

Your posts should not compete for each other or affect each other negatively. Capitalize on your recent victory if you recently made a great post that got your audience engaged by creating a great thought follow up sentiments.

Facebook has an algorithm that rewards your content performance that makes your activities more visible to your fans in the newsfeed. Contrary, if you post regularly and don’t get shares or likes, you become less noticeable.

Considering this you should always post valuable information as a musician on your platform as compared to throwing every post. Tag the people who are involved in your music videos or any company that will increase your visibility to those who have been tagged.

Use Twitter Lists

Twitter is a channel that allows you to have a conversation with your audience and communicate with potential fans. The instantaneous nature of Twitter tolerates short bursts of engagement and activities to dissect the latest music releases.

Twitter lists is a sensible approach to keeping a musician’s chaotic life a little bit in order and make it easy to locate the individuals you want to get in touch and nurture relationships.

The initial process takes a few hours if you haven’t explored the lists, and it’s worth it. Add all the people you follow on Twitter to custom lists. They could be PR companies, music blogs, labels or producers. It is empowering to tailor your Twitter feeds in respect to what you’re searching at that time.

The best thing is when you add one to the list they get notifications — the opportunity to give the dose of love and make them know you better. While developing your list name them as “Great taste blogger” or “Hottest producers in town.” Indeed, this will encourage whoever you are adding to have a look at your artist page.

For immediate results we suggest unfollow/follow technique, it is pertinent to note the easier a follower is to land on the less valuable they’re to you. You should attract worth followers by creating exceptional content which gets retweets and like, gaining organic followers and spreading awareness.

Don’t waste space on your social media profiles

As this affects both your personal and artist pages; we are addressing the header images. Make it count, since it is the first thing people see when they find out your profile-free advertising space and you should make it look nice.

If you have new releases, push it here by designing an excellent image header and if you have an upcoming tour or shows indicate the dates and venue. Don’t forget to have artist landing page/website or a “Call To Action.” Regularly change your header image to get engagement with your followers.

Make use of pinned posts

It is interesting how only a few people pin baller posts to their social media pages. Most people on social media post a lot of stuff; some bad, some good some that have no engagement, some with high. That’s only natural.

When a prospective future fan trips your page, what do you want them to see? Pin the best post that represents you as a musician; this should preferably be a music video linked to your landing page and not that post without likes.

Write Blog Post

It is not difficult as it used to be or as it sounds. You need to be a WordPress master. Utilize online programs to easily and quickly knock up blog posts. It does not necessarily have to be lengthy; it could be documentation of your time in the studio or a collection of photos and maybe a gig you had previous night. It gives you mileage to extend your network and reach a new fan base at the same time looking good on your profile.

Did you have a killer play at the weekend? Draft about the show including some photos, the sound guy, the other bands, the venue, fans and the photographer a shout out by linking their pages. Share the post to anyone who features in it, and you will notice they too sharing the blog post also with their audience.

Google Alerts

These alerts are so valuable, underused and easy. Come up with a dedicated Gmail account, because you will receive a lot of daily alerts; this will be for two main functions:

You can develop alerts for your artist name, your albums or singles, meaning whenever you are mentioned on the web you get notified. Getting these alerts makes you feel pretty good and gives you something cool to post.

You set a third party content alert to entertain your audience, and your news feed shouldn’t just be all about “me, me, and me.” It can be news on other artists that your fun and you love, funny posts, blog posts about political persuasion and even dark memes. When your following trusts you as an authority of proper content distribution they will engage yourself serving blog posts.

YouTube

It is a platform you will be uploading your music videos, so it is vital to have a following on YouTube. After having a subscriber base, your fans will instantly be alerted of the new music release and likely watch it.

YouTube is about an algorithm, the video is suggested based on the minutes a video is watched as opposed to the number of viewers. It important if the viewers are watching your music video to the end to be ranked higher than a video that is being watched for the first three seconds and click to other videos. It is the reason why you should not buy fake views.

Use Inbound Advertising

Inbound advertising means driving your community at a regular touch back to the artist landing page. Provide plenty of opportunities and posting your blog content to send your people to your website.

Take third party links and embed your free adverts back to your landing page. Add a Call To Action button and a custom tagline. It is a bonus since you get to know the statistics of how your posts perform, as you get to see how the fans are engaging your content.

Landing Page

It is a page you want your viewers to land on first. It is ideally the page on your web where your audience can listen to or purchase your music. Be sure your social posts have links back to this page. On this page also link this to your social profiles; Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. You can embed your live Facebook and Twitter or streaming profiles on your landing page.

Check out the Daily # Trending Hash-tags

You should avoid crafting your content to fit the trending topics or doing it religiously. Give it a whirl if your day’s content somehow relates to the hot trends. It can arguably give you first lane audience. You create clever and original content that stands out of the crowd; you’ll get more re-tweets, making a snowball like an effect, bringing you into more limelight to people who previously didn’t know about your existence.

Organic reach is the sure sustainable mean of promoting your music on social platforms at your disposal. With your current fan base post your content with use of hashtags when using Instagram or Twitter. It is advisable to use organic momentum before investing money to see how the content will generate engagement that will push an algorithm to your favor.

Engage in Conversations

Facebook and Twitter are the two giant playgrounds for individuals with similar interests to interact. However, if you only get to social media to promote your new song releases, tour dates or a new album, you will not experience real engagement, since this is talking to your audience as opposed to talking with them. You need a two-way interaction between your fans and you to build a rapport and trust. Engage your followers in a conversation by replying o messages and comments to identify patterns and trends.

Create a Strategy

Musicians face a complicated problem on social media, listening to music requires a confident mood and a place where you can calmly listen to the lyrics without disturbances, and these are not the always the conditions when one is surfing on social platforms. More so that most platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have audio muted by default, you will need people to unmute the video to listen to your track; this might be seen as insignificant action but getting people to notice such kinds of stuff costs corporations millions of investment.

Brand Preparation

I wish there were a way we could tell this is the music that will make people talk, however, for the success of music there’s an entire realm of aspects that can get you noticed, and the main is your brand image. That’s why you’ll always see the tip “get your image right.” Easy to make point but extremely difficult to follow.

Establish Mediums to Push your Music

Keep in mind that with your music you need to be adding value to your fan base. Montage music videos which showcase how huge your band is, or behind the scenes how your music production is taking place. These videos work wonders with your loyal fans. We are focusing on building new fans for your music.

Video-based Content

Video music is the best converting type of material on social media; they’re enticing and make people stop scrolling and watch. And are by far the most challenging content to get right, you require an exciting storyline, well planned out and enough characters, and the energy to keep the fans glued on the screen to the end. Successful jams come with planning and knowing what’s going to happen that is compelling at the beginning, middle and end.

Conclusion

Despite what the corporations and labels are doing, musicians are pushing themselves to use social media platforms to offer value, connect with fans and create a relationship. It has led to a new entity in business models and revenue streams from live appearances, touring, and social monetization via advertising.

Related Questions

What are the top sites every musician artist should have a presence?

• Flickr
• Myspace
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter

Why is it important for musicians to participate in social media?

Artists will have the advantage of using online tools to enhance their projects; tour date, videos, and singles. And have a new and easy method of communication to the fans and other artists.

Social platforms aren’t just for businesses trying to advertise their products or services. Social media can be a compelling tool for recruiting and hiring attractive candidates for your business. After researching the subject, there are a few clear steps to take to use social media for hiring.

How do you use social media for hiring?

1. Create a LinkedIn profile for your company
2. Use LinkedIn to post job openings and recruit qualified candidates
3. Use other social platforms to highlight your company culture
4. Use organic posts and paid advertisements to promote your current openings across all social media channels
5. Recruit candidates using social media search features
6. View candidate’s social profiles to assess culture fit

Each social platform allows you as a company to connect with candidates at all stages of the hiring process. You can use social media to post job openings, illustrate your company values, highlight behind the scenes, showcase your company culture, enable your employees to become advocates for your business, and vet potential candidates.

Here’s how to use social media for hiring:

Create a LinkedIn Profile for Your Company

The first step to using social media for hiring is making sure your company has a presence on the #1 hiring-related social channel: LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the professional arm of social media channels, and it’s one of the first places people will encounter your business during the recruitment process.

The engineers of LinkedIn say that companies with complete profiles get 30% more weekly visits. LinkedIn suggests adding a description with relevant keywords and phrases that describe your company’s mission and purpose. Recruiting in this day-and-age is all about culture fit, so attracting candidates with your values is a good place to start.

Next you’ll want to add your logo as your profile picture, so potential candidates can easily recognize your company’s posts or job listings with a memorable graphic. Be sure to include your company information, like website URL, location, industry, and size.

Just like you would any other social media site, part of using social media for hiring is showing potential candidates that you’re up-to-date on your industry. LinkedIn suggests posting daily to generate a better connection with your audience. Get employees to share the posts, ask engaging questions, and curate content to highlight your commitment to hearing all opinions.

Having a completed profile and posting engaging, industry-relevant content will help attract job seekers to your business page on LinkedIn. They’ll be able to see the core information about your business if they’re interested in applying for a job with your company.

Use LinkedIn to Post Job Openings and Recruit Qualified Candidates

One of the best features of LinkedIn is the ability for companies to post job openings directly to the platform. LinkedIn reports companies experience 40% higher rating on quality of applicants using the LinkedIn job posting function.

Posting jobs on LinkedIn allows you to match your open role to relevant candidates based on skills, industry, experience, interests, and most likely to apply. LinkedIn also offers the “Easy In-Apply” feature, meaning candidates can apply for an open position directly within the platform.

Applying within the platform allows you to minimize candidate drop-off between the posting and the application. Plus, when you share the job posting to your feed — or your other social feeds for that matter — your company information is already connected, making it easier for interested candidates to research your company before applying.

Use Other Social Platforms to Highlight Your Company Culture

Posting jobs on social media is the straightforward part of recruiting. What candidates look for most on your social profiles when considering to apply for a job with your company is a glimpse into your company culture. Attracting candidates is much easier if they connect with the culture your company projects.

One way to highlight your company culture is to create separate social profiles for the careers side of your business to highlight your culture. Look at the company Hubspot, for example. They utilize a separate handle on Facebook and Instagram, @Hubspotlife, to showcase what goes on behind the scenes at Hubspot.

By using a separate handle, they focus their recruiting and culture efforts with a specific audience in mind, instead of conflating messages to their product-related social audience. They use their separate handle to illustrate their company culture, and provide potential candidates with a clear look into the workplace they could be joining.

Not only can they direct potential candidates to a specific profile for recruiting purposes, but they can promote job openings using social advertisements from a profile that is directly related to that goal.

If you don’t want to create an entirely separate page on social media, consider using hashtags. Use relevant hashtags for the position your filling to attract candidates searching on social sites.

The best way to use hashtags with social media recruiting, however, is to create a branded hashtag specifically for posts and photos related to working at your company. This way, potential candidates can search for it, seeing your company’s and employees’ posts in a more authentic setting.

What to Highlight About Your Company Culture on Social Media

Highlighting your company culture is all about exemplifying your core values (and showing that it’s a great place to work). You can do this by posting pictures of company outings, sharing stories of camaraderie, and allowing your employees to share why they love working for your company.

Company Outings

Job seekers love seeing how you give back to your employees. Do you do a lot of volunteer work as a company? Share photos of your service days! Do you frequent happy hours for team bonding? Post pictures from your company outings to attract new candidates. For example, try posting a boomerang of the gang cheers-ing and the next company-wide happy hour or social event!

Milestones

Another great thing to call attention to while using social media for hiring is employee and company milestones. Future employees want to see an employer will appreciate their work at a potential workplace, so announcing and celebrating employee milestones and success is a great way to show candidates that you’ll recognize their future contributions.

Meetings and Collaborations

Working with big-name brands and other company collaborations can be a big draw for potential hires. If your company works with a variety of clients, showcase the work you’ve done for them and what the process was like! Have an on-site meeting with a client? Share it! This will give your future employees a greater look at the types of services you offer, and how you get them done.

Behind the Scenes/Day-In-The-Life

Use Instagram to highlight behind the scenes at your company. Try going live to show potential candidates the office. Make sure your location is available to tag or you have a branded hashtag for employees to use so your employees can tag your company when posting about work events.

This will give candidates a true inside look at the company, as it’s coming from the employees who work there!

Use Organic Posts and Paid Advertisements to Hire on Social Media

Not only can you use your social media pages to highlight your company culture, but with a designated recruiting profile, you can post your job openings to your organic feed. Not to be confused with posting a job on LinkedIn’s job board, sharing a job posting as an organic social post will help you reach a broader audience.

Keeping your audience up-to-date about current openings is one of the best ways to use social media to recruit candidates. Sharing the job posting on social media will make it easily available for potential candidates to see. Instead of waiting for interested people to find you by searching for a related job, you’re broadcasting the news!

Post organically on Facebook and Instagram using a fun graphic or image to announce new job openings. Write a post with an inviting message about what kind of candidate you’re looking for, or who should apply. Have a little fun with the messaging — social media is the place to give interested candidates a better taste of your company’s personality.

Use your employees as advocates when posting job openings on social media, as well. Ask them to share the post with their network, and offer them referral bonuses. It’s a great way to spread the word about the new opening and incentivize your employees to refer qualified candidates.

Once the organic post does well, put some money behind it. Creating paid advertisements for your job posting will help you reach a specific audience, allowing you to target the job details even more to produce more qualified candidates.

Use Social Media to Search for New Candidates

When you recruit potential candidates, you spend most of your efforts on what you as a company project — how descriptive is the job post; are our values highlighted; have we shown enough light onto our company culture — in the hopes that your company will interest candidates actively searching for a job. But part of the recruiting process is also actively seeking out candidates.

LinkedIn makes this easy within the platform. Most people use LinkedIn to highlight their resume and background, so it’s expected that somebody at your company will look at a candidate’s profile once they apply, but you can also search for candidates using relevant keywords on LinkedIn and other social sites. Instead of waiting for potential new employees to apply, actively recruit qualified candidates using their experience listed on LinkedIn.

Recruiterbox suggests searching for candidates by location, current and past company, and years of experience to zero in on potential job candidates. When reaching out to them, differentiate yourself from the crowd — talk about what specific information on their profile drove you to reach out and why you think they’d be a good fit at your company.

When you find potential candidates on LinkedIn, take a look at the content they’ve shared recently. Are they up-to-date on industry trends? Do they share insightful comments and engage with with thought leaders? Look for the following:

• Good Comments (by others), References, and Recommendations
• Good Communication Skills
• Mention of Awards and Accolades They Received
• Positive Posts and Comments about Themselves and Their Colleagues, Bosses, and Organizations
• Posts on Industry Knowledge or Professional Experience
• Qualifications and Pieces of Evidence of Work (that match what is mentioned on Resume)
• Shares of Industry Related News and Trends
• Well-rounded Arguments

If they share posts like these, the chances are they’re passionate about their field and positive co-workers to be around.

View Candidates’ Social Profiles to Assess Culture Fit

You can tell a lot about a person from their social media profiles — what their hobbies are, what they like to do in their free time, what they interested in. This information can be incredibly helpful when assessing the culture fit of a potential new employee.

Employers peek at social profiles at all different stages of the hiring process: 47% of employers look at social media profiles after receiving an application, 27% after an initial phone conversation, 15% after a detailed conversation, and 4% right before making an offer. Only 7% of employers don’t look at candidate’s social media profiles.

Don’t use a candidate’s social profiles in a discriminatory fashion — rather, use them to build a connection and identify common interests between you/your employees/your culture and the candidate. Look for any people they may know at your company, or even people they know in your own network.

Related Questions

What are the best social media sites for hiring?

LinkedIn is the best site for posting jobs and finding potential candidates, but Facebook and Instagram can help illustrate your company culture to potential new employees.

What information should you pay attention to when looking at a candidate’s social profiles?

You want to assess proficiency and interest in the field on sites like LinkedIn, but Facebook and Instagram can be a good place to look for potential red flags that could be a liability to your company culture.

The rise of e-Commerce still remains unmatched in 2019. And statistics indicate that a whopping 93% of buyers seek feedback from social media platforms prior to making online purchase decisions. This is enough proof that social media and e-Commerce are inseparable—you need social media for the success of your online shop.

How can you use social media for e-commerce? Social media is a perfect platform for sellers to market their business while still learning about their consumer needs. The top ways to do this are:

• Optimize your social posts
• Share relevant content
• Enable the share button
• Use attractive and eye-catching visuals
• Interact with your followers
• Use paid ads

A majority of online businesses have realized the great benefits of having an online presence. In fact, there are studies that show that online stores with social media presence report 32% more sales compared to those without. Here are proven tactics that will help any e-Commerce to reap maximum benefits from these platforms.

Top Social Media Strategies for eCommerce

Astonishingly, an average person spends approximately two hours every day on social media. This traffic from social media accounts for 80% of all internet traffic. But, have you ever wondered why people spend this much time online?

Times have changed—and so has the digital market. In the recent past, social media platforms were purely for connecting families and friends. However, the use of these platforms has tremendously evolved. To a majority, social media platforms are now the go-to places for information and reviews about a product they intend to buy. And for others, it is the ideal place to shop for unique products or services.

Another interesting fact is that a person spends twice as much time on social media than on any other search engines. This means that you are more likely to attract buyers from social media platforms than on search engines.

Surprisingly, there are still some online business owners who are yet to exploit the benefits of these platforms. Others are only halfway there. This is for you. Below, we focus on the best social media strategies for your e-Commerce.

Optimize your social posts 

A majority of the buyers use social platforms to search for detailed information about a product before making any purchase. Therefore, it is important that your content is seen by your target audience. How will you achieve this?

First, do thorough research on the words that consumers use when searching for products or services that you offer. You should then ensure that these keywords are well distributed in your posts.

Share relevant content

Do not be lured into sharing only promotional content with the thought that it will substantially increase your sales. Actually, this is likely to push away prospective. A sure way is to attract and maintain consumers is by finding a balance between the amount of promotional and informative content on your site.

Consider sharing more entertaining content, tips on how to use your products, precautions, and other educative information. In short, prioritize your consumers’ needs before yours.

Enable the share button

Many online users will want to share meaningful, engaging, and entertaining content with their peers. Therefore, ensure that you enable the share, comment, and like options on all your posts. This is an easy way to let your followers do the marketing for you.

Sharing posts to other social networks helps you to reach a broader audience, increase your followers, and boost relevant traffic to your site. Also, if your business has more than one social platform, a good idea would be to cross-promote content for those sites.

Interact with your followers 

The easiest way to earn your customers trust and loyalty is by demonstrating that you care more about their welfare, and it’s not only about selling. Build meaningful relationships with your prospective buyers by answering their questions, responding to their comments, and by being part of their conversations.

A good way to participate in your consumers’ discussions is by being an active member of groups and forums that are related to your product/service, and even share interesting content posted on those platforms. The users there may as well return the favor by sharing your content.

Another option is by use of live chats. Consumers always appreciate experiencing a more human interaction, and this is exactly what live chats offer. They offer a perfect platform for you to learn about your audience.

Here, you can inquire what prospective buyers actually want. This will help you to strategize on how your business can adjust to satisfy those wants. You can also engage your audience on current trends and other controversial topics related to your niche.

Use paid ads

More and more online businesses have embraced the use of paid social media ads to promote their online businesses. Of course, you do not want to your competitors to beat you at this game. Set apart some resources to invest in paid ads.

Research shows that the use of Facebook ads, promotional tweets, and other ads will boost the traffic to your sites and may even prompt buyers into impromptu online buying.

Use attractive and eye-catching visual content

As seen from the above study by Hubspot, the preference of video has drastically increased. In fact, 54% of users prefer video content from a business or brand they support. Here is why.

As discussed earlier, most consumers depend on social media for recommendations on a product they intend to buy. And through videos, they are able to actually see the product’s packaging, how it is used, and its overall outlook.

You can take advantage of this rising preference by using the live stream feature to stream events. Or, you can hold Question answer sessions where you answer any questions your fans and consumers may be having. Another way would be to create videos that offer advice on the use of your products, or explanations to various debatable subjects.

Be consistent

When you post regular quality content, your fans will love you for the constant supply of useful information. Also, consider updating and re-posting older evergreen posts that brought the most traffic to your site. They are still useful now as they were then.

The best way to achieve consistency is by creating a posting schedule and sticking to it. It will increase traffic to your site and result in higher conversations.

Be precise

Although long educative posts are gaining popularity, a majority of social media users still prefer short, clear-cut posts. These posts are easier to read, comprehend, and pass along.

Use of messaging apps

For a more personalized interaction with your prospects and followers, messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and Whatsapp are the way to go. For instance, these apps can be used to update customers about their orders or to provide fast and personalized information regarding a certain product or service.

Consider outsourcing

If staying active on social media is taking too much of your time, then outsourcing a professional to do the work for you would be the best alternative. These days there are many freelancers on various platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr who have specialized in social media marketing. Their services are mostly cheaper and will save you time to focus more on your business.

Additional tips for the best social media experience

Social media is now flooded with online businesses, and we want you to stand out.  Therefore, we have compiled a few more tricks that will ensure you stay on top of the game.

Use mobile-friendly content

Research shows that currently there are more than 2.56 billion mobile social users. And on average, they will spend 69% of their media time on smartphones. Thus, it is very important to ensure that your site allows for easy mobile use. For example, upload videos in vertical format—the majority of users will not tilt their phones to watch a video.

Automate your response

Another piece of research shows that around 60% of consumers who air their complaints on your page expect your response in less than an hour. If you have the resources, hiring a virtual assistant will help you achieve this. Otherwise, the use of chatbots may be your ultimate rescue.

Narrow down to one or two channels

Having an online presence does not necessarily mean joining all the platforms the internet has to offer. Instead, settle on one or two platforms where you can easily reach and grow your target audience. This will ensure that you do not invest in a platform that bears you no returns.

Below are some basic tips that will come in handy when choosing the best social platform for your target audience.

• Instagram is a visual platform. It is ideal for creating businesses aiming to create brand awareness through the use of creative and attractive brand stories. It is predominated by the female users.
• Facebook is perfect for all audience and is mainly accessed via mobile phones. It is still the most powerful channel for business.
• Twitter is preferred due to the use of short tweets. Brands can use this site to update customers on sales, upcoming events, etc.
• Pinterest is also mainly dominated by the female audience. It is perfect for businesses dealing with fashion, interior design, decor, beauty, etc.
• Do not forget to include the social sharing buttons on other posts outside social media, e.g. on your blog. It will increase traffic to your page.
• Share photos of the person or persons behind the business.

This can include photos of the employees at work or in a recent team building activity etc. The users will appreciate having a face attached to the business.

Offer giveaways

This is the easiest and quickest way to gain a larger following. Although it does not guarantee an increase in sales, it is a surefire way to sell your brand name and increase traffic to your site.

Related Questions

What is the best time to post on social media?

This will vary depending on the specific platform.  For instance, the best time to post on Facebook and Twitter is between 1 pm and 3 pm. However, it is important that you are able to do your own research to identify which time works best for your kind of business.

How can I know if my social media marketing is yielding results?

You can determine the success of social media marketing by evaluating the number of clicks, likes, shares, comments, and retweets. Or, you can link your social platform to your website and then use apps that help track traffic driven from these sites.

Jump on the social media bandwagon and innovate or face the risk of being out of business. Skeptical attorneys may view social media as a fad, but the latest statistic proves otherwise. According to the American Bar Association 2017 survey¹, an astounding 77% of legal firms maintain a social media presence online. In the context of digital marketing, having a presence on social media is mandatory to survive, even for law firms.

How to use social media for legal firms? As a professional service provider and just like doctors, legal practitioners are bound by a code of ethics to fulfill their professional responsibilities at all times. As such, legal firms can use social media to build awareness about the services offer, share corporate social responsibility events that they have participated and other content relevant to the service provided, without comprising client confidentiality or divulging sensitive information on cases handled.

Employing best social media strategies will help legal firms learn more about clients, acquire new clients and network among industry key figures relevant to your practice. A robust social media strategy for attorneys is imperative to achieve business development goals. Read on to discover 5 tips on how legal firms use social media to build their business as we reveal some of the best case studies.

Define Your Social Media Goals

Start off by defining your social media goals and align them with your business objectives.

Ask yourself if your business social media goals strive to achieve the following.

• Increase brand awareness and education
• Improve reputation
• Acquire new clients and foster relationships with them
• Establish thought leadership
• Grow your professional network
• Discover industry trends and news
• Promote an upcoming event

Did you know that the most popular reason lawyers used social media was for career development and networking (67%), followed by client development (56%), education and creating awareness (39%), and finally case investigation (21%). These statistics from the American Bar Association 2017¹ survey points towards a growing importance of social media for legal firms.

Once you have defined your business’s social media goals, you are now ready to determine which social media platform to leverage.

Determine The Social Media Platform Where Your Audience Is

Having a social media profile on every available social media platform is akin to going shopping without a shopping list. Being on every social media platform will not guarantee success to your firm. Bound by constraints of time, resources and manpower, law firms should be selective in the platforms they chose to partake. Here are the top social media platforms legal firms around the world are seen on.

LinkedIn

With 500 million members, 61 million senior-level influencers, and 40 million decision-makers using LinkedIn, this platform is ideal for creating awareness among key decision makers. Legal firms specializing in conveyancing can take advantage of LinkedIn to connect with bankers and property developers. Similarly, legal firms focusing on corporate conveyancing can improve their visibility among senior management in financial institutions abound with M&A activities. Baker and McKenzie, the number one law firm in the world is known to showcase their authority in handling mergers and acquisitions on LinkedIn.

Facebook

According to the Attorney at Work’s 2017 Social Media Marketing Survey², 48% of the lawyers cited spending more time on Facebook, compared with 27% who said they spend more time on LinkedIn. In the same survey, the majority of the attorneys at 31% mentioned that Facebook was the most effective platform for bringing new business.

With Facebook’s new algorithm favoring meaningful interactions and content from friends, family and groups, legal firms can build on their own network of friends and reach out to a wider audience for new client acquisition. Organizing webinars on Facebook is another tactic that will not only help to demonstrate your expertise on a legal matters, it will in fact also help you to garner new clients when viewers pre-register to join the webinar.

In addition, the more engagement and followers a Facebook page has, the better the SEO ranking is, translating into better visibility on the internet, as long as your page is indexed by search engines.

If you are looking to expedite your business growth in a short time, Facebook advertising will allow you to reach your target audience 10X faster. Dynamic targeting on Facebook allows you to choose your audience based on location, demographic and various psychographic dimensions. As such, Facebook advertising helps to increase reach and impressions at rapid speed unrivalled by organic growth. Immigration Lawyers PLLC used Facebook advertising to increase awareness of their expertise with regards to immigration law.

Twitter

With 26% of lawyers reportedly using Twitter, Twitter ranks as the third most used social media platform among lawyers, just behind Facebook. Instead of merely tweeting, listen and respond to queries posed, reply tweets promptly and start discussions to drive more referral, traffic and re-tweets. Sharing content and responding will yield better results than solely posting content. You can also share links to other people’s content, blog to create original content and even mix in some personal stuff to humanize the legal service and give it a warm persona. Take heed from leading international law firm, Crowell Morning on how it uses podcasts to facilitate easy sharing of their expertise in an easily accessible audio format.

With more than 23.1K followers on Twitter, Clifford Chance demonstrates effective usage of Twitter to showcase relevant content on their investment in human capital, industry news, company updates and legal matters.

Other platforms law firms can use to increase online visibility includes Google My Business (which combines Google+ and Google Maps) and YouTube. Bear in mind that to have sufficient and capable manpower to manage these digital platforms are paramount, as a badly managed social media site can be more damaging than not being present on the platform altogether.

Develop Your Content Strategy

Content is king, and developing content that connects to your audience will help build followers. Producing voluminous load of content will not work – what you should strive for is to create new and creative types of content. Mix your content delivery of by using info graphics, podcast, visual content, webinars and videos to keep your audience coming back for more. According to the ABA Journal³, 1/3 of prospective legal clients start their search for a lawyer using online resources.

To give you examples, legal firm specializing in conveyancing can then blog about the conveyance process for home buyers that will interest your clients. Litigation lawyers who go to court can showcase your case victories out of court ethically, as long as there are no lock-down restrictions and that you strictly abide to client’s need for confidentiality.

Publications and blogging are good avenues to showcase your services and improve your websites SERP (search engine ranking page) visibility. When writing, avoid legal jargon and use simple language as your audience is most likely the man on the street. Post regularly and at least once a week as fresh content will keep visitors coming back and search engines “crawling” back to your website. Most leading legal firms in the world publish fresh content every week and use various social media platforms to drive traffic back to their website. Take a look at the example below by Linklaters.

Implement. Adjust. Repeat.

Now that your end goals are set, social media platforms are chosen and your content strategy has been mapped out, it’s time to start posting.

Plan your content at least one month ahead, and write ahead of schedule to buffer against unexpected scenarios that robs you off your time. Post bi-weekly as scheduled, and curate trending content as it unfolds. As you post, you will notice an increase in engagement, referrals and acquire new followers. Do reach out to your viewers directly and begin a conversation outside of the content updates. What you want to create are lasting impressions, so that when the need for a solicitor arises, they have your name at the top of their mind.

Be patient with social media posts as it will not bring in astronomically more new clients overnight. Over the next 4 to 6 months, being consistent with your social media strategy and content will enable you to foster professional online relationships and hopefully convert them into loyal followers and clients.

Use analytics to track your progress

Digital marketing provides great ability to quantify and track the activity of your users through analytics. Study the number of impressions, click through, engagement on post and other metrics available on social media platforms to measure your efforts. Remember to include Google Analytics on your business website or blog, to learn more about user behavior on your site.

Let us revisit your business’s social media goals and outline the corresponding key performance indicators to track.

Social Media Goal	Performance Metric To Track
Increase brand awareness and education	Audience reach for each post
Improve reputation	Positive comments or engagement
Acquire new clients and foster relationships with them	Number of new online conversations and contact form submission
Establish thought leadership	New followers or connections with your page
Discover industry trends and news	Groups, connections, and industry leaders that you follow
Grow your professional network	New followers or connections with your page
Promoting an upcoming event	Number of registered attendees

Closing Thoughts

With 70% of law firms confessing to using social media as part of their marketing strategy, the remaining 30% must innovate to stay abreast with today’s digitally demanding consumer. Viewers today rely heavily on Twitter and Facebook for recommendations for legal services. To move forward, it is timely for legal firms to disrupt the conventional way of doing business by integrating social media marketing with traditional marketing strategies for business continuity.

Related Questions

What type of social media post do people want to see from law firms?

The type of post, tone and manner that people want to see from law firms defer depending on the social media platform used. On Linked, keep the post professional, ranging from services provided, professional views and trends related to the economic development, implications of changes in law jurisdiction and general advice related to law. While Instagram may not rank as the number platform for legal firms, it has enjoyed a meteoric rise on popularity over the years. Posting on Instagram helps to build an approachable persona of your legal firm. Content that work well on Instagram for law firms includes employee-centric post, post showcasing company events such as family days, or associates attending a baseball game over summer generates good engagement. An exemplary way how legal firms can use Instagram effectively is demonstrated by @dlapiper, whereby it successfully generates 100 likes for each post on average.

How should I handle negative comments on social media?

When responding to someone who is upset, compassion and empathy will help to sooth their anger. Most importantly, recognize that they are unhappy and courteously advise them to message you privately via Facebook, or offer a phone number or email address. Moving the conversation out of the public forum is the best way to handle such situations.

If negative comments are posted, you can “Hide” the negative comment or opt to utterly delete it. It is in the owners’ best interest to protect the integrity of the business and there is nothing wrong with hiding the comment from public view. Do ensure that the complainants’ views are acknowledged, the problem is fixed and a sincere apology is issued. A properly handled dissatisfied client may be a golden opportunity proof your worth again, and delight the client by handling his dissatisfaction carefully and professionally.

References

¹https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_practice/publications/techreport/2017/social_media_blogging/

²https://www.attorneyatwork.com/2017-survey-results-lawyers-use-of-social-media-marketing/

3 https://www.imarc.com/blog/2016_legal_marketing