Use customer support to drive top-of-the-funnel leads

Social media has opened a new line of communication between brands and consumers, and it should be used to its full advantage to continue driving leads. While there are many brands that highlight repeat customers and compliments, there are also many that shy away from addressing customer complaints and end the conversation once it turns sour. But that doesn’t have to be the end of the conversation. In fact, it’s just the beginning. Social media empowers every brand to turn fans and followers into advocates. Every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to earn and re-earn trust. JetBlue, an airline social media marketing strategy template well known for its customer service, is one of the many brands that uses social media to resolve customer complaints quickly and efficiently. We see the social proof -- JetBlue continues to win over repeat and new customers by its consistent efforts to meet customer demands, a cornerstone of its brand. We can’t forget the simple power of the direct interaction and excellent customer and community service. Brands that continuously interact on social media will see an increased lift in customer engagement and leads as a result. Social media has a 100 percent higher lead-to-close rate than traditional outbound marketing. The key is providing real value to your community, and that value will come back as direct ROI for your company when you activate sales campaigns. Social media lives in its own category that requires social media marketing resume constant attention and resources, and it evolves daily as customer demand requires your brand’s presence to be strong. However, the investment will pay off more than you think. Once you have defined your audience and optimized your content, the next step is turning your social-media channels into sales channels. Social media is not just about generating awareness anymore. It’s about generating revenue. The most effective brands already know this, and they are getting ahead.

How a group of black social media activists built the nation’s first 21st-century civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 25 at the corner of Pratt and Light Streets, in Baltimore’s revitalized downtown district, more than 100 police officers in riot gear stood shoulder to shoulder, shields up. Six officers on horseback fidgeted behind them, staring down at a crowd of about 40, an odd mixture of protesters, journalists and protester-journalists. Earlier in the afternoon, well over a thousand people marched from the Western social media marketing campaigns District police station to City Hall to protest the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man whose spinal cord was severely injured while he was in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department. Only a handful of live-streamers, an older man in a kente-cloth kufi, five or six teenagers with bandannas drawn across their faces and two young women in cocktail attire who had just been kicked out of a wedding were left. Each person was filming the police. In the coming days, riots would convulse the city, with young people running through the streets, looting stores and setting fires, and the National Guard descending on their neighborhoods. But this protest looked much like the ones that have characterized the growing movement against police violence. Bodies moved in the dark, but the faces — protesters and police officers alike — were lit up by the thin, lunar glow of cellphone screens. One protester was DeRay Mckesson, a 29-year-old former school administrator who has spent much of the past nine months attending and catalyzing such protests, from Ferguson, Mo., last summer and fall, to New York City and Milwaukee in December, social media marketing service to North Charleston, S.C., in April. Mckesson, who is from Baltimore, had returned to his hometown not long after Gray’s death to join the protests. Now he stood in his usual pose — his slender back straight as a ramrod, phone held in front of angular face, camera lens pointed directly ahead. The phalanx of police officers began tapping their riot shields with their batons and shouting, “Move back!” Then, in a sloppy, seemingly unrehearsed lock step, they advanced on the protesters.

Stats You Should Know About Visual Content Marketing in 2015

Each year in mid-January, when all of last year’s research has been published, we like to read through some of the major reports on inbound marketing, content marketing, social media and online behavior. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, honestly, it’s amazing how fast things can change in twelve short months and 2014 was certainly no exception. While reviewing this year’s research two major trends emerged and both social media marketing conference highlight the effectiveness of visual content marketing. As you will learn, this year’s data reveals that marketers who are leveraging visual content are seeing significant increases in their blog traffic, social media engagement, visitor-to-lead conversion rates and inbound customer acquisition results. Let's begin by examining a few statistics that demonstrate the impact visual content has on social media reach and engagement. Over the last 12 months almost every major social network, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram have increased the prominence and importance of visual content. Keeping pace with this trend, several research studies conducted over the course of 2014 point to the rather amazing effectiveness of visual content for social media. Technological evolution allows consumers to connect with the world through a handheld device, gaining (and providing) access to a wealth of information. Through social media channels,effective social media marketing we’re able to instantly share news, pictures, videos and personal preferences. For consumer product brands, this means that the ability to predict consumer preferences just got a lot easier—and harder—at the same time. The data is right there, but how do we gather and analyze data, and put the insights into action? Figuring this out is key to harnessing preference information and can help consumer product companies develop proactive plans that deliver the right products, at the right time, to buyers that already want them.