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Social Media New Year’s Resolutions

With the full calendar year wrapping up, it’s time to look at those Insights, crunch some numbers and develop the social media strategy for your brand. This will elevate engagement with your posts, widen your audience and deepen your reach into demographics. We’ve gathered a few New Year’s resolutions to help keep your vision for your social media 20/20.

Use Insights to Tighten Up Your Strategy

The final data points from the last quarter block of the year will help your brand adapt to ever-changing trends in brand interactions. You’ll get overall charts measuring the general parameters of how people are interacting with your social media page, from views to likes to reach and so much more, Insights will help you pinpoint what kinds of posts your 2020 strategy will need to concentrate on replicating.

Stay Updated on Algorithm Updates

As platforms continuously update their algorithm’s coding throughout the year, you need to stay on top of new adjustments to make in your social media strategy. This includes transitioning away from posting at a certain time of day and moving towards orienting your content around topics that will cause a platform’s algorithm to show your stuff to more people. Sometimes there are big changes in an algorithm’s decision-making skills, like with Instagram’s update in November 2019, and sometimes the changes are relatively minor. Regardless, you should make it a point to stay up to date on all the latest social media platform algorithm updates in 2020.

Get More Accustomed to Facebook Creator Studio

With Facebook Creator Studio, you have all the content creation tools you need to post on Facebook and Instagram; including a sound collection library and tips on how best to monetize your page. You can make your videos highly engaging with polls and interactive text, and Creator Studio helps you get your content in front of as many people as possible. There really is so much it can do, from composing and uploading your content to helping you with social media best practices. You’ll get better Insights than ever before on how people interact with your content on your brand’s page. It also doesn’t hurt that you can post to Instagram from your desktop through Creator Studio!

Practice on Your Video Content

The transition to more video content is the overwhelming trend heading into 2020. Everyone agrees video is where people’s attention will be, however, which format will take the reins remains to be seen. Going to live video has been a bit of a bumpy ride across social media. Some platforms have seen it stumble, like Facebook, while others have seen it flourish, like Instagram. Stories have seen a massive swell in use across all platforms with Instagram leading the way in creatively sharing the moments right around you. Facebook Creator Studio wants everyone to make more videos and will help you find the right audience for your page. An interactive 360-degree video will grow over the next year, letting more people experience the sights and sounds of new places. Video chat is on the rise as well, so if you’re creating more video content in 2020, you should be in a good place as you’re creating social media content for a new decade.

Southern View Media is a digital marketing agency that was created to help local businesses understand the complex digital world and make educated decisions regarding their marketing. We are a balance of talent, intuition, business sense, media solutions and metrics to be a creative problem-solving machine that is fueled by client needs and driven by results, and we are ready to provide businesses with marketing and advertising services at any level. From standing out to breaking into a market we help people find you, trust you, and share you.

Contact us to find out how we can help with your business’s digital presence. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-517-9425, email us or fill out the contact form here!

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How Often Should You Post on Social Media? The Lifespan of Digital Content Online

One of the main questions we’re asked at Southern View Media regarding social media strategy is: How often should I post on my social media platforms? There are a lot of different specific answers to this question, but the overall general answer is, “As often as you can keep posting quality content consistently over time.”

Quality and consistency matter more than posting frequency. It is important to keep these factors in mind when developing your social media strategy, no matter the platform. However, as social media companies have grown and differentiated from each other in their purpose and use, so have their algorithms when it comes to filling users’ feeds. So there really are certain numbers of times you should post your consistently high quality content depending on the platform. But it’s not all as complicated as you think. Thankfully, social media pages do not have to post content now as often as you may have heard.

Larger pages, like those for billion-dollar corporations, may be able to get away with more posts because of their larger follower counts. Their quantity of posts gets spread out via the algorithm so that no one user is overloaded with posts from the same mega-corporation, unless that user actively engages with those brands on a consistent basis.

Now, on to the really useful stuff for small, medium and large local businesses, like how often to post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

 

Facebook

Most studies concur that posting on Facebook once per day is the most successful rate for your business’ main social media page. Studies have also found that if your page has under 10,000 fans or followers on Facebook and you post more than once per day, you will witness a drop in half of your post engagements. The minimum of posts to post on Facebook is generally agreed upon at three posts per week. The best time to post doesn’t matter as much now as it did in the past, as Facebook’s updated algorithm factors the time of posting much less heavily in filling your News Feed. Check your followers time of activity in your Insights and adjust from there.

 

Twitter

With 500 million tweets per day in 2019, the lifespan of a tweet might be the shortest in all social media. Usually, the lifespan of a tweet is well under an hour. So with that in mind, Twitter requires an active hand to stay relevant. At a minimum, tweet twice a day, with a preferred goal of 15 tweets per day and a max amount of 30 times a day. We recommend sprinkling tweets throughout the day using a decent post scheduler.

 

Pinterest

The benefits of posting Pins on this platform start to diminish the closer you get to posting 30 Pins a day. Follower growth has been a little hard to achieve on this platform the past several years, but posting around 11 Pins a day keeps your account active enough that your follower count should continue to see marked growth.

 

Instagram

The fastest-growing social media platform actively recommends at a minimum one post per day, with two as a suggestion and three tops. Posting around the three-hour blocks on weekdays usually gives your posts the best chance for the most engagement and larger reach, so pay attention to whether your followers are morning people or night owls.

 

LinkedIn

This is by far the easiest scheduling strategy to remember: at least two posts a week, with no more than one post per day. The morning offers your post its best chance to reach the optimum numbers of users on the business networking platform. Blog posts are excellent opportunities to establish your brand as a longform expert in your field, but don’t overdo it on LinkedIn. It’s used less often throughout the day than all the other social platforms.

 

YouTube

Your main focus with developing your YouTube channel should be consistency. You should create a specific posting schedule, post that schedule onto your YouTube account, pace yourself and make and save those YouTube videos and have them ready to upload when you need them on your schedule. YouTube’s best times to upload are between Noon and 3pm on Thursdays and Fridays. Avoid Mondays and Tuesdays like the plague. They are YouTube’s worst days to upload for views and engagement.

 

Well there you have it! A comprehensive posting strategy for the major social media platforms. Remember, every account is different and user patterns change all the time, along with each platform’s algorithms. So stay vigilant, follow Southern View Media on our social platforms or visit SouthernViewMedia.com for more insights, tips and updates. We put you online so you don’t get left behind.

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New Instagram Tips Straight from Instagram HQ. (November 2019)

Instagram is constantly developing new modifications, changes, features and updates to their algorithm on the photo and video sharing app throughout the year. The company also posts tips and notes on how to best alter your use of the app to get the best results. This blog will cover updates and notes on how to best implement hashtags in your posts, what’s happening to Likes, what you can expect from an updated algorithm and how best to get verified on the app.

 

Hashtags

Hashtags are an effective way of categorizing your posts, videos and pictures. However, in the past, hashtags have gotten out of hand. Hashtags allow posts to be collected into vast libraries of posts tagged with the same hashtag, creating a folio of similar subjects to explore for inspiration and ideas. Unfortunately, this system was abused via spam to insert off-topic ads and promotions in categories they had no business being in, so Instagram has issued a few recommendations.

-The IG team doesn’t recommend using more than TEN hashtags. The sweet spot is usually in the spectrum of three to five hashtags per post.

-Hashtags need to be highly relevant to the content of the post. If it’s not in the post, don’t mention it. Concentrate on what the content of the post is about, not the overarching continuity of your profile. If all of your posts have the same hashtags, it becomes incredibly redundant.

-Post your hashtags in your caption. Don’t clutter your post with a comment of hashtags.

-A block of 30 hashtags (especially when put in a comment) sends the message that it could be “spam” according to the IG team. Nobody reads them all anyway.

 

Likes

Likes on Instagram have become a commodity of their own in the 21st century self branding ecosystem. Now, Instagram is slowly rolling out updates that hide any one profile’s post likes from being seen by visitors to their pages or posts.

-Update is in 5-6 countries right now.

-A lot of IG employees have been testing it out personally for the past eight months, and prefer the app without seeing others’ Like totals.

-Likes will NOT disappear altogether. They will just disappear from being visible to people other than you.

-You can still see your posts’ Likes on the app’s backend (and share with brands if you’re a creator) if you choose to.

 

The Algorithm

Instagram’s algorithm determines the nature and order of your Instagram feed based on your interests and interactions. A few notes on the update:

-The algorithm will never go back to being chronological.

-The time of day you post doesn’t really matter, despite Insights marking out when your followers are active.

-Even if your audience is more “active” during the day, it does not mean that your posts will have a better chance of being seen.

-The way your content gets seen is controlled by whether or not your followers are engaging with your post. In order to see the content you want first and foremost, you absolutely HAVE to engage with it by liking and commenting on the posts and accounts you like the most, and vice versa for your own content. It signals to Instagram that you would like to prioritize that account over your other follows.

-So moving forward, your profile’s posts need to garner more likes and comments so your content will appear at the top of everyone’s feeds as one of their priorities.

 

Verification

Getting your profile verified on Instagram can do wonders for your follower count and post interactions. However, users have been having issues with receiving notice on successful verification for their profiles. Instagram has passed along a few points about the process.

-The only way to get verified is by using the public verification form where you can apply through the app.

-The decision will show up in the “Activity” tab, which can get buried under every notification in the tab unfortunately.

-If you haven’t heard back re: verification after a while, you likely weren’t approved or it was buried under “Activity” notifications.

-A lot of the verification decision is based on what Instagram calls the “notability” factor: press coverage, mentions, top results on Google, etc.

 

There you have it! Instagram is one of the more quick to adapt social media apps and they are constantly tweaking updates here and there. We hope this rundown has helped. Keep an eye out for future Southern View Media discussions on updates to our favorite apps!

 

Are you looking to get help with your Instagram? Contact us for a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605 or visit www.southernviewmedia.com. Thanks to @lindsaysilbs for sharing this awesome information with us! We love her Instagram Intel!

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Michelle’s View: An Interview with Access Magazine

Michelle Murrill of Southern View Media was honored to be interviewed by Access Magazine recently. Read the full article below! 

Michelle's View
Michelle's View

Michelle’s View

In this day and age, having an online presence for your business can mean the difference between success or flop. That’s why it is important to work with a company that specializes in marketing to help put businesses (like yours) on the “digital” map – a company like Southern View Media. Michelle Murrill, Southern View Media co-owner (alongside husband Brad), tells ACCESS about the importance of digital marketing. 

By Caroline Edmondson

 

It’s no secret that our world is quickly going digital, which means if a company has no online presence, it’s likely losing major money. No one understands this more than Michelle Murrill, co-owner of Southern View Media, who started her company back in 2015 in an effort to help local area businesses increase their digital visibility. But the depth and scope of her online experience precedes the start of her Alabama-based company by far. 

 

Having moved to Charleston years ago with her husband, Brad, and initially establishing herself as a stay-at-home mom, Michelle swiftly realized that the lifestyle didn’t suit her career desires. To curb her entrepreneurial craving, she launched an online platform dubbed MomsofCharleston.com where she showcased all of the area’s exciting local events and happenings (places for kids to take lessons; awesome birthday party locations; restaurants where kids eat free; etc.), and area advertisers were quick to reach out to be listed on the site or to display their ads. “I worked hard to make the website show up in Google search results organically, used Google Ads, and grew a following on social media platforms for the site,” Michelle explains. “I ended up making a profit before the site even launched and was approached about a buyout shortly thereafter.” Michelle loved her time researching content for the website, but also enjoyed meeting the advertisers and hearing how the content marketing was working for them. “I learned so much about digital during this time, and it was really just the beginning of the digital marketing world back in 2008 to 2010,” she says. 

 

In 2010, the couple moved back to Baldwin County, digital marketing knowledge and a plan in tow. “We wanted to start another company similar to the one I had in Charleston but needed to prepare and plan before we jumped in,” she says. “I worked for another company selling and putting together marketing strategies for about five years. During that time, we saved money, and the overall vision for our company changed into what Southern View Media is today.” Michelle and Brad completed training and testing on digital marketing products to make sure they were prepared to take on their first client when the time came. “We set pretty high standards, expectations, and goals for ourselves, our company, and our future employees,” she adds. 

 

Thus, Southern View Media was born. 

 

So, what exactly does Southern View Media do for big and small businesses? Clients are offered a wide range of digital marketing services including website design, social media marketing, online ads, email marketing, logo design, app development, and much more. “The problem we help a lot of clients solve is finding the right digital products to use to represent their business online,” Michelle says. “The question isn’t why they need it; it really is what type of online marketing do they need the most to attract their perfect client. The answer differs for each business, as each industry and business are unique. It’s our job to get to know that particular business and see what works for them.” Michelle and Brad follow a few basic principles when it comes to each of their clients. First off, Michelle explains that people do not want to be sold; they want to buy – but they don’t want the hard sell when they are scrolling through their news feed. Because of this, Southern View Media focuses on what Michelle calls “The 3 E’s of Social Media”: Education, Entertainment, and Engagement. “Once people follow a page, engage with the page, and we build up credibility, they will spend more and be a more loyal customer because they feel like they have built a relationship with our client online,” Michelle explains. “The key to success, though, is truly partnering with the businesses we work with and getting to know them, their voice, and their clientele to make sure the content we create matches their company vision. There is just no cookie-cutter way to approach it; you have to dig in, do the work, and do the research to see the results, but it pays off!” 

 

And pay off it has, with big-name clients like Truland Homes and Peak Alkalinity seeing a positive impact thanks to Southern View Media. Erica Pounder, marketing director for Truland Homes, says, “We have been impressed with the quality of services we’ve received from Southern View, but more than their expertise, we have been impressed with their level of customer service, which is above anything else we have experienced with other companies.” As for Peak Alkalinity, Michelle says they have enjoyed helping them grow from a small storefront in Fairhope to a multi-location business by building their online presence from scratch. 

 

These success stories show how important it is for small, local businesses to have a large presence online in order to grow. Without a well-known, national name, local businesses rely on word of mouth and referrals by clients. This is why digital marketing is essential for these small businesses, as it really gets their name out there and helps grow their clientele. It is possible to have your business become a household name; you just have to have the right digital tools to make it happen. 

 

What makes Southern View Media the best choice? Its team and individualized process, of course! Michelle says her team is “the best of the best,” as her first standard for a new staff member is finding someone smarter than her, since no one person can possibly be an expert at all the services they provide. Southern View Media has focused on its processes since the beginning, making sure nothing gets left out. “We continually update, change, improve, and customize these processes as we grow. But this is what keeps our business moving forward,” Michelle says. 

 

As far as balancing marriage and their shared company, Michelle and Brad say they love what they do, and their work is an integral part of their marriage and who they are. “As far as working with my spouse, I absolutely love it,” Michelle says. “Having him in the office with me means no matter how difficult a situation or stressful a day, he can lighten the mood and make me laugh. It is a lot of fun! We are smart about it, though, and keep separate offices,” she jokes. “Watching how Michelle manages the business, our team, and our family is amazing,” Brad adds. “Knowing we are working together for a common goal in all aspects of life is an incredible feeling.” Michelle and Brad currently have three children, aged 18, 11, and their newest addition, a baby boy named Hudson, born just last month. Michelle says the months leading up to his birth were filled with the hustle and bustle that comes naturally with nesting: “I had planned out a lot of things to balance and prepare for those first few weeks of chaos after you bring a new baby home,” Michelle jokes. “The whole family is thrilled for this caboose baby!” Congratulations Michelle and Brad on their newest addition and continued success in their business!

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But What About BERT? Your Guide to Google’s Latest Algorithm Update

Google announced its latest algorithm update on October 24, 2019, a few days after its initial rollout had already started. The update will affect up to 10% of queries on the search engine, making BERT one of the largest updates from Google in the past five years.

 

BERT

BERT is an acronym representing “Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers” (We’ll get to this in a second, in plain English) and is a “neural network-based technique for natural language processing (NLP) pre-training.” Whew! That’s a mouthful.

 

BERT Explained

BERT’s focused on figuring out the intent of your Google searches better. Instead of looking at each search query word by word, BERT lets Google look at the entirety of the search query in order to get a more accurate idea of what the desired result is. In the past, simple words, minor modifications or discrepancies in search queries and Google Ads Keywords could substantially change the search query result from what the user wanted pulled up. BERT allows the search engine interpret the desired result from the whole query, and not get distracted by the wrong details.

 

Look at like this, when someone asks you what a seahorse looks like, do you start out by drawing each individual part separately and gluing them all together? Or do you start with the overall shape first and then fill in the details as you get to each section of the seahorse?

 

Examples

In the first example provided, Google illustrates how a small mistake like using the wrong preposition would affect the algorithm’s interpretation of traveling to the US vs from the US.

In the second example provided, Google used to autocorrect “stand a lot” to “stand-alone” missing the overall intent of the search query, which wanted Google to focus on the physical demands of the job. Now, BERT helps Google interpret the query along the user’s line of thinking: the physical demands of working as an esthetician.

How BERT Will Affect Your SEO

Make sure you watch your traffic for any changes over the next several weeks. This algorithm is not going to punish anyone, thankfully. This update is only meant to better interpret desired search query results from the query itself.

 

The best way to come out on top of the BERT update? Know the questions and reasoning behind your target audience’s search queries. Then, create your content based on the goal of answering as many of these questions as possible.

 

Good content in this case comes in the form of well-written, long-form guides and blogs that sufficiently answer the questions your audience has, and even questions they haven’t thought up yet!

 

If you’re traffic is decreasing because of the BERT rollout, here are a few pointers to get your traffic trending back in the right direction.

 

  1. Pinpoint the search queries or keywords that make your traffic drop. There are several programs like Search Console that let you run a comparison report of your queries.
  2. Find out what’s ranking now. Is it a different form of content than what you’re publishing? Does it approach a topic from a new angle or perspective? Does slightly different wording create a whole new question?
  3. Slightly change your content. You don’t want to ditch your whole brand identity, but tweaking your content just so to reflect popular trends can open up new possibilities to match popular queries.
  4. Ask Google what it wants! Google is constantly letting creators know what content performs best.

 

So there you have it! Google’s BERT update is its latest, and one of the largest of the past five years. It’s purpose is to better understand search intent, not to penalize anyone from doing anything a certain way, so there’s no need to rush and upend your content plans and strategies. All you have to do is pay attention to your traffic over the next few weeks and adapt to what you’re seeing. We’re excited to see how our SEO improves!

 

Contact us to find out how we can help with your business’s digital presence. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605 or visit www.southernviewmedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions.

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Why SEO is a Sound Investment for Your Business

Digital Takeover

The floodgates have opened when considering the amount of advertising that is on the Internet. Over half the population (55%) of the world uses the Internet on a regular basis. Advertisers have followed audiences into the digital realm and now over $240 billion of all ad money is spent digitally marketing on the Internet’s 1.94 billion websites. With over 7 billion Google searches performed each day and ecommerce rapidly gaining ground in overall retail sales, Search Engine Optimization is absolutely critical for any business’ digital marketing strategy. It’s where the people and the money is, and where your business should be, too.

Mobile’s Edge Has Been Noticed

The landscape of digital marketing changes rapidly, with many new elements being introduced every year and immediately having an impact. One of the major shifts in Internet use this decade is the rise of mobile devices. Mobile traffic has surpassed that of desktop computers, with 48.2% of all online traffic coming from mobile and tablet devices. Google and other major search engines have started to reorientate their whole operation to reflect this new trend in data consumption. Businesses need to reflect Google’s changes in their own digital marketing strategies.

All Signs Point to SEO

One strategy that has come into even more prominence with the rise of mobile devices and search engine’s subsequent adjustments to better present data for mobile consumers is Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of your business’ web traffic by improving the visibility of your business’ website on search engines. SEO is an Internet marketing strategy that your business should consider because it is an efficient method for positioning your brand as an authority that will be highly recommended to web users searching for information relevant to what your business does.

Why Choose SEO as a Digital Strategy?

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO takes into account how search engines operate, their behavior-determining, computer-programmed algorithms, what people terms and keywords people search for and which search engines are the most popular. Peak optimization is achieved through editing and adding site content, increasing backlinks, modifying HTML and another coding to both increases a site’s relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. A website will receive higher traffic because a search engine ranks a site higher in the search engine results page (SERP). These visitors can then be converted into customers and put revenue in businesses’ pockets.

Trust and Credibility

SEO builds up trust and credibility for your brand. Google will analyze your site based on its standards for web site quality and place it in its corresponding ranking on its search results pages. Because Google is such a behemoth of the Internet, it’s standards are used to unofficially determine the standards for the rest of the Internet. For instance, Google’s rankings reflect a pleasant user experience and strong, relevant information from backlinks. High-quality backlinks reinforce your brand’s trustworthiness by linking your page to other strong web pages. The more strong backlinks you have, the better your information and the higher your rank on Google search results. Users see your high ranking and automatically know that your site is legitimate because of Google’s standards.

Smooth User Experience

Google has learned to analyze the experienced user’s go through looking for the information they’re searching for. If it takes a lot of clicks to find that information, Google will reflect this inefficiency with a lower search ranking. Customers know what they want and know how long it should take them to find it. The right SEO leverages this to work in a brand’s favor.

Local SEO Strengthens Your Site in a Local Market

Local SEO helps your company stand out in local searches. With the rise of mobile traffic, local SEO means increased engagement, traffic and conversions for local small and mid-sized businesses. It’s absolutely necessary for local businesses to employ SEO because it optimizes a business’ digital presence for a specific area. Brands must be visible in places where people need them to make a worthy connection. Local SEO enhances visibility and lets potential customers find the answers, and the businesses providing those answers.

And, Finally, SEO is Cheap!

SEO budgets are as flexible as the businesses managing them. SEO is a long-term investment that will improve with more time, effort and attention put into it. While the cost of SEO is cheap, the payoffs are tremendous and can lift your business into a new phase of brand recognition, trustworthiness and local visibility.

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Why You Should Choose Video Marketing

Video Marketing is soaring towards becoming the strongest marketing trend of 2019. Video Content is getting the attention of all the major social and tech media giants because of media consumption trends by the general population, because creating video content has gotten cheaper and offers a greater ROI and because new video format allows for many different placements for ads. If your business or brand has not bought into video marketing yet, maybe these reasons will convince you to start recording and sharing!

 

More People are on Mobile and Streaming Than Ever Before

The rise of mobile data consumption is the overarching media trend of the past decade. Mobile traffic has now surpassed that of desktop computers, with 48.2% of all Internet traffic coming from mobile users. The display format of mobile devices naturally trends towards playing videos horizontally, matching up very closely to film and video’s preferred 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 aspect ratios. US consumers are watching videos more than ever before, and streaming accounts for 15% of their 40 hours a week spent watching videos digitally. More people are cutting the cord with cable providers, preferring the content online in skinny bundling packages like Spotify Hulu. Audiences are no longer watching commercial rotations on cable and broadcast en masse like they were just 5 or 10 years ago.

 

More and More Social and Tech Brands are Concentrating on Video

The giants, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, have been closely monitoring how their users have been consuming data in this new digital age and have appropriately implemented changes in their platforms to reflect data consumption habits. Mark Zuckerberg explicitly stated the futures of Facebook and Instagram is in video, and that he will spend as much as he needs to accelerate the move. His plans focus on initiatives like Facebook Watch, and native ads playing before, during and after video streams. Facebook encourages brands to post videos around three minutes in length based on their studies on audience viewing habits, for example. Instagram is following its parent company, naturally, expanding beyond its original still image format with minute-long video posts and the longer IGTV video format. Twitter even relented and now allows videos to be posted along with tweet captions. Amazon is barreling along with its streaming services for Amazon Prime members. And, most impressively, Google has announced that it will have its AI programs search for video snippets relevant to search queries and will autoplay them on that query’s results page.

 

 

Video is Cheaper to Create Now, Ad Spend is Performing Better Than Expected

For a long time, it was hard to make interesting videos quickly, cheaply and efficiently. Creating videos took too long, the tools were hard to learn and everything and everyone involved were too expensive. Nowadays, everyone can record videos and edit them with ease if they have a smartphone. So we now have a situation where across the field, online video is getting better at an amazing rate. And going hand-in-hand with this information is the return on investment now enjoyed by marketers on digital video. Digital video is costing less to produce, generates more interest in a brand, product or service and is more effective at conversions than non-video advertising. People watching video are more likely to act. Viewers retain the information from videos much better than receiving it via text. For example, marketers using digital video had their revenue grow 49% faster than those who didn’t.

 

Video Changes with the Times, and Often Reflects Progress Easiest

It seems like the days of your typical 15-second and 30-second pre-roll spots are a thing of the past. Marketers have gotten extremely creative in where video can be placed, creating more opportunities for brands and services than ever before. Video can be put wherever there are eyes on screens. Now it’s no strange thing to see an ad play natively before a video stream, mid-stream or after. Instagram has video ads between users’ Stories, YouTube offers its TrueView streaming ads and Twitter plays videos between every couple of tweets.

 

Video is Able to Tell and Show a Story in Vastly Different Formats

As mentioned earlier, people retain information much easier via video than any other format. Makes you wonder why I’m writing this all down then, huh? While blogs definitely have their purpose and benefits, video is easier and quicker to consume. Your message is more likely to be heard and understood the way you meant it to. Your message can now be told via 10-second stories on Facebook and Instagram. You can host live video sessions like a Q&A or an Ask Me Anything. 360-Degree and VR videos allow you to transport audiences into immersive settings and scenes. And people are wanting to learn more about products and brands in paid video classes and tutorial videos. The way you want your video to share your message is now only limited to your imagination!

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The Five Pillars of Digital Marketing for Your Business

In the past several years, we’ve gone through a behavioral shift in how we interact with the internet in our day-to-day lives. Over 78% of Americans use the Internet and there are over a million new internet users logging online for the first time every day. Our time is spent balancing being present in the digital world and the physical one. Our eyes and time are directed towards screens more often than not. Marketing reflected this change in where people’s attention was held. Since then digital marketing underwent seismic changes, culminating in mobile Internet usage finally surpassing that of desktop computers for the first time last year. With the Internet being available in people’s pockets for most of the past decade, several forms of digital marketing became critical for a business’ success.

 

Social Media

 

Social media is instrumental in developing a brand. Each post creates depth, personality and opportunity for businesses to interact with current and potential customers and clients. There are plenty of social media platforms to facilitate these interactions like Facebook and Twitter. However, Instagram and LinkedIn are two social media sites on the rise with their unique applications for marketing, sales and brand development. A majority of people use social media to reference and brief themselves on a brand they’re interested in, with businesses not active on social media losing credibility.

 

Google Ads

 

Google Ads is the tech giant’s online advertising platform where advertisers allow Google’s servers to place brief advertisements, offers, product listings, etc. for key search words people are entering in segmented market shares. These bids successfully place a business’ ad in a place where their target audience is looking. It’s a brilliant method of making sure your dollars are spent to place ads in relevant locations. And Google Ads is extremely cost-efficient, with bids costing pennies and your budget is determined only by your business.

 

Website

 

Your website is your business’ chance to present itself in the best light possible. It’s an opportunity to create a unique identity for your brand, inform visitors about your business, position your brand as an expert in its field and finally convert visitors into returning clients and customers. Consumers hold businesses that have websites with short loading times, a pleasant color scheme and intuitive interfaces in the highest regard.

 

Digital Display Ads

 

Digital display ads is the new term to identify what used to be called banner ads, or the small ads that take up the empty space on a business’ webpage. They’re a form of pay-per-click advertising and don’t just come in banner shape and size anymore. While paid search ads appear on a search engine like Google’s results pages, display ads appear on the sites that are shown in those results pages. These web pages are ones relevant to your product or service, and a more effective placement for your ad. For digital display advertising on the Google Display Network, display ads appear on various types of websites like blogs, news organization pages, Gmail, YouTube and others. A digital display ads effectiveness is measured in impressions and clicks, telling you how many people have seen and interacted with your digital display ad.

 

SEO

 

Search Engine Optimization is the process of strengthening the quality and increasing the quantity of your website’s Internet traffic by increasing its visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s an improvement of free, organic results. SEO involves modifying a site’s code, adding content like a blog with backlinks and other adjustments in UX to improve the site’s rankings. A significant portion of SEO also involves integrating key search terms into your page’s copy to increase its relevance in search engines’ ranking algorithms. SEO requires an extensive knowledge of many areas in digital marketing in order to be successful, but offers a high return on your investment.

 

If you need help with promotions or advertising, contact Southern View Media to find out how we can help with your business’s marketing goals. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605 or visit www.SouthernViewMedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions.

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June 2019 Core Update for Google Reference

The Google Core Update took the team about five-days to roll out. They began Monday, June 3, and finished up on Saturday, June 8. These updates take time to roll out due to Google’s myriad servers and data centers around the world. For an update of this size, five days actually isn’t that long of a wait. We’ve compiled a list of FAQs that will help you sort out what you need to know from the recent Google Core Update.

 

So, Were There Any Hiccups?

There was early data presented regarding the size of the update as it was still rolling out. Large publications like Daily Mail stated publicly how badly the update affected them. Google hasn’t released any data on how big of an impact the updates made like they did previously with the Penguin and Panda updates. However, Google did say they announce these core updates because they are noticeable.

 

The Google Core Update did overlap with the diversity update. On June 3, the Core Update began and lasted through June 8. While the Diversity update started June 4 and ended on June 6.

 

How Will This Affect My Business?

When Google releases large updates, it’s important to note when they began and when they ended. If you notice website traffic increases or decreases in your analytics, knowing the timestamps of the updates allows you to track if your website was affected by a specific algorithm update, technical issue or a separate issue that is completely unrelated. Overlapping updates make it a little more difficult to judge a website’s impact; but if you work with a good SEO, you should still be able to get accurate data.

 

Southern View Media SEO Services

When you’re ready to see your business show up in search results, call the digital ninjas at Southern View Media. If building a site from the ground up is what you need, we can help. What about a site that already exists? Don’t worry, we have you covered. Our team will perform an in-depth inspection of your current website and uncover any issues there may be. Following our site audit, we provide an extensive report including the problems we found and the opportunities we recommend that will positively impact your business. At Southern View Media, We Put You Online So You Don’t Get Left Behind.

 

Contact us to find out how we can help with your business’s digital presence. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605 or visit www.southernviewmedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions.

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The Advantages of Social Media for Your Business

Over the last 15 years or so, social media has grown tremendously. It allows us to stay in touch with family and friends that have moved away, and is also a great source for news. While social media obviously has its uses as a free service for one’s private life, it had to find a way to make money to grow. Businesses stepped in to capitalize on where everyone was spending so much time online. While large corporations that are easily recognized eagerly joined everyone on social media, smaller businesses were slow to seize social media’s impressive reach to new audiences. If you own a business and have yet to utilize any of the social media platforms available at your disposal, then it’s time to get started. Here we’ll discuss with you the advantages of social media for your business that will have you wanting to create accounts for your business as soon as possible.

Quick, Easy Communication

Social media provides you with the opportunity to connect to customers in a quick, easy manner. You can read reviews left by customers and can respond to them accordingly. Direct messaging on social platforms is now one of the primary ways customers reach out to businesses with questions and feedback. It is faster now than it has ever been to contact the right people, and most of the time you don’t even have to pick up the phone. As a business owner, social media gives you the ability to stay in contact with your consumers and receive feedback in real time.

Increases Website Traffic

Utilizing social media channels will also show an increase in website traffic. You can direct visitors on your social media pages to your website by posting your URL wherever you please on your profile and posts. Most social platforms also provide you with Insights on your posts’ reach and audience. Businesses are able to attract a visitor’s attention with posts and can capitalize on a captive audience by insisting on learning more by visiting the full company website, a crucial step in converting users into customers or clients. Let’s say you own a boutique with a brick-and-mortar location. Those local to your area know about the business because they have seen it, but having a social media presence allows you the ability to reach audiences all over through social platforms’ recommendation algorithms, putting your message on a completely new target audience’s news feeds. When done correctly, this should allow for an increase in sales on top of your improved website traffic.

Brand Awareness

Social media is an extremely cost-efficient form of digital marketing that can increase your business’s visibility. By adding a social media strategy to your overall marketing plan, it should increase your brand’s awareness because you are able to engage with a larger audience. It’s important to interact with others when starting your profiles. Ask friends, employees, business partners and any sponsors to share your pages and posts to increase the audience you reach. Facebook, for example, also gives businesses a leg up with their Pages You May Like recommendation tool, where pages of similar topics and mutual interests are displayed for those looking for new follows or friends. Also, boosting your posts can dramatically increase your brand’s reach and improving your brand’s awareness for a price you determine based on your company’s resources and needs. With just a few minutes of exploring a social media platform, you should be able to find the right avenue for spreading the word about your business.

If you need help with promotions or advertising, contact Southern View Media to find out how we can help with your business’s marketing goals. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at (251) 551-0246 or visit www.SouthernViewMedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions.