The platform launched in 2005, and since then has grown to become the second most visited website in the world. Yet, for some reason, Youtube is overlooked by some businesses as a potential marketing tool. That’s why we’re here to tell you that Youtube is a great way to engage potential customers, and give you some top tips for raking those views in.

Why is Youtube an effective marketing tool?

• Each month, Youtube gains over 1 billion unique visitors worldwide. That’s a LOT of potential exposure for your business. 
• Most people prefer visual content. Potential customers are much more likely to watch an informative video about your product or service than read a lengthy sales letter.
• Producing Youtube videos is an opportunity for your business to gain trust and establish authority within your industry.
• Youtube is a two-way marketing method. You can interact with your customers in the comment sections beneath each video. This should go down a treat with modern consumers who love to feel connected to a brand. 

How to gain views on Youtube videos

Hopefully, by this point, we’ve convinced you that Youtube has a lot of benefits to offer. Whether you’re new to Youtube or you’ve already started a channel for your business but are yet to gain traction, here are some tips for pumping up that all-important view-count on your videos. 

Think SEO

Youtube is a search engine, in fact, it’s the second biggest search engine after Google. That’s why SEO applies here too. 

Google owns Youtube which means they have similar ranking systems for the content they display. If you’d like a more detailed overview of how to rank high, check out this article we wrote which walks you through the top 10 Google ranking factors – and can be applied to Youtube too. 

Consider Keywords

You need to consider those all-important keywords when writing video descriptions, just as you would on your website. In the first 100 characters of your description, aim to cram in the best keywords for giving the most relevant explanation of your content to your viewers. 

Don’t forget to be creative with your writing too, your description will act as a pitch that can either persuade or dissuade viewers to keep watching your video. 

Create enticing titles

The title of your video is one of the first things a potential viewer will see and it’s one of the biggest factors considered when a person is deciding whether to click on a video or not. So, make sure it captures both the essence of the video, (what the video aims to explain/its purpose), and comes across as enticing. 

WARNING: Don’t fall into the clickbait trap. If your video doesn’t match up to how you’ve described it in the title, viewers won’t want to watch any more of your videos, and more detrimentally, they won’t trust you as a brand. 

(Think SEO here too, insert the most relevant keywords for your video).  

Choose attractive, relevant thumbnails 

As we said above the title of your video is one of the first things a potential viewer will see, and along with it will be the thumbnail you choose for your video. 

A thumbnail could be a screenshot from your video or even a title-based image. When creating your thumbnail preview, aim to intrigue your viewer and make them want to find out more. But again, ensure it’s relevant to the content of your video or you will just end up with disappointed viewers. 

Encourage subscribers

Another way to get your video ranking higher, and ultimately gain more viewers, is to encourage existing viewers to subscribe to your channel. Not only will your new videos appear on their subscriptions page, but having lots of subscribers also means your videos will rank higher in the search results.

Promote your videos on other platforms

If you’re already using Youtube as a marketing tool, or are considering using it soon, there’s a big chance you already use social media as a marketing tool too. If this is the case, you can share your Youtube videos across all of your social media platforms.

Sharing video content on these other platforms is a great way to attract viewers who’re already interested in your brand, and will increase engagement as your followers will hopefully like, comment and share your videos. 

And there you have it. 6 Ways to boost your viewer count and help your brand reach more potential customers. We hope you enjoyed this post. 

Good luck!

Attracting customers to your product is a challenge that all businesses must face, and social media is one of the most powerful tools for the job. Consumers are 87% more likely to check out a brand’s products if they already follow them on social media. But, winning followers on your platforms, and ultimately customers comes down to having a strong social media marketing strategy. This requires a lot of knowledge and skills. To add to this, expanding your strategy across a franchise with multiple locations means expanding your knowledge and skills whilst maintaining brand consistency – tough stuff right? 

Don’t worry. We’ve got some valuable tips for you, so stick around and keep reading.

We know building a successful social media marketing strategy is hard work even for the smallest of businesses, that’s why we created this useful guide. Today though, we’ve got some tips to help you with marketing your franchise on social media. 

Communicate with your franchises

Make sure all local teams are fully informed when it comes to your brand image. Give them examples of wording, style, and colours, and keep communication flowing to keep everyone aligned. Set out benchmarks for campaigns to ensure everyone is organised, and at the same time maintain brand consistency. 

Utilise templates

A great way to control content quality is to create templates that can be sent out to different locations. Then, each team can personalise the content to suit their location. This ensures branding is consistent and prevents certain locations from lagging behind others. 

Stick to a posting schedule

All of your content should be scheduled in advance so stick to a posting schedule and always plan ahead. When there’s a holiday coming up you can create content themed around that holiday. Remember to take local time zones into consideration. 

Monitor performance

Track the performance for each location to make sure all social media efforts are contributing to the success of your business. You can analyse statistics for all your pages, and check the metrics for each post to see what’s working and what isn’t. Data will help you provide personalised feedback for all your locations so they know what to work on. 

Educate your franchises

Your local teams will benefit from lessons from the head office. As you grow, educate your franchisees so they can grow with you. Showing them the best strategies will keep everyone motivated and ready to take the next step. 

Social media tool for franchise marketing

Social media management tools are one of the greatest solutions for franchise marketing. Staying on top of content creation and delivery, posting schedules and performance analysis is a tough job for any business, but for a franchise, it’s next level of stress. Thankfully though, you can take the stress away by utilising our all in one digital marketing solution: Byter Studio. You can create new content, choose from thousands of templates and analyse the data across all of your channels. Social Media Marketing is a tool for any business this day and age and should be a fundamental part of your business.

Good luck!

Strong communication is essential to a successful business. Better communication can lead to increased morale, productivity and commitment amongst your employees. Spend time and energy creating a more open and communicative work environment and you will be rewarded with trusting employees, who’re able to communicate effectively with their colleagues, managers and customers. 

The importance of communication in the workplace

Let’s have a look at the many reasons why organisations can benefit from prioritising communication in the workplace. 

Goal alignment

Many organisations report that their employees’ goals do not align with corporate purposes which is a result of poor communication. Leaders and managers who have everyone singing from the same hymn sheet have more success in the workplace.

Increased productivity and engagement

Keeping employees in the know with company news and updates leads to a more productive workforce.

Improve workplace safety

Better communication in the workplace will equip your employees with better crisis management and improve workplace safety. 

Reduced turnover 

Encouraging bottom-up feedback can lead employees to stay longer because they feel involved in company progression.

Better interdepartmental collaboration

Good communication leads to better interdepartmental collaboration. Companies see great results when their departments work together like a well-oiled machine.

More efficient remote working 

Remote work has become the new norm for many industries over the last year. Good communication among remote employees helps to keep everyone motivated and included. 

Promote a culture of open communications

Now that we’ve covered some of the benefits of improving workplace communication, we’re going to show you some ways to facilitate it. The important thing to remember here is that open communications need to become part of your company culture if you want the benefits to last.

Regularly check in with employees

This is an effective way to promote strong communication. Make your employees feel like they have a voice by scheduling one-on-one meetings where you ask them for feedback and suggestions, and also ask about their current projects. If your staff feel like they’re being listened to, they’ll be more likely to talk. 

Start an “open door” policy

Many employees don’t feel comfortable speaking up to their boss, or sugarcoat it when they do. Instead of waiting for them to come to you, reach out to your employees and invite them to come and talk to you whenever they have something on their mind. An open-door policy will motivate your employees to communicate with you and result in better connections and meaningful conversations. 

Utilise social media 

Encourage your employees to engage with the company’s social media, and as a result, engaging with each other. Ask them to like, comment and share posts about the organisation, this will spark conversations and create a sense of togetherness. 

Rearrange the office

Communication in the office is often stunted by an inefficient layout. Open up your floor plan, get rid of cubicles and partitions and make sure everyone can see each other. Not only will this encourage communication between employees, but it will also create a more enjoyable and relaxed atmosphere – it’s a sure-fire way to boost morale! 

These are four great ways to open up communication channels amongst your workforce. The aim is to give all of your employees a voice, so that every employee feels comfortable communicating freely with their peers, colleagues and superiors. 

Good luck!

You’ve spoken to your potential client and gotten to grips with their needs, you feel confident that you are a great fit and at this point, are ready to woo them into selecting you as a marketing partner. To seal the deal and win that perfect partnership, craft a seductive and compelling proposal that they’ll find impossible to turn down. 

To ensure your proposal is concrete, these are the elements you MUST include:

• An explanation of how social media marketing can benefit their business
• A list of the strategies and steps you will take to achieve their goals
• Proof that you are qualified and evidence of your previous successes
• A breakdown of the important details e.g. deadlines and costs

Include all of these in your proposal and you’ll be on your way to success. Your potential client will have all the evidence they need to make that final decision. Before you begin writing your proposal, keep reading as we’ve put together a step by step guide on how to do it best.

Determine the client’s goals

A great place to start is by finding out what their business and social media goals are. Once you know what they’re working towards, you can start to figure out how social media will help them get there. 

Suss out the client’s audience

Don’t make assumptions about their audience when writing your proposal. Collect as much data as you can about the client’s audience and use it to help you plan your strategy. If you have a relationship with the client at this point, ask them to provide you with any data or analytics they may have. 

Research their competition

Identify at least five of their main competitors and monitor their activity. Gaining an insight into their social media activities will help you identify any gaps, then you can put together a plan for how you’re going to fill it with your social media strategy. You should also ask the following questions when researching their competitors:

• How often do they post content?
• Is their content entertaining enough?
• Is their content useful?
• Which types of content do better than others?

Having answers to these questions will give you clear direction for your social media strategy. 

Run a social media audit

Investigate which social media channels your client is already using, identify which ones are most successful, and assess the metrics. Having a good grasp on what they’ve been doing, what’s been working and what hasn’t will help you identify growth opportunities. 

Create a content strategy

At this point you should be in a good position to begin planning your content strategy. Decide what content you’d like to produce on which channels, considering design, style and voice. Make sure you identify the strongest elements of your client’s brand image and capitalise on these. 

Remember, communicate with your client whilst you’re planning the content strategy, at the end of the day it’s their needs you’re trying to address so use them as a source of information. 

If you’re having difficulties putting together a great social media content strategy, check out this article we wrote. 

Write your proposal

If you’ve completed the last 5 steps, it’s time to put everything together into one great winning proposal. Remember to include:

• The client’s needs and goals
• Social media goals and objectives
• An outline of your tactics 

We hope you found this post helpful if there’s anything we can help you with, get in touch. 

Good luck!

New to blogging and wondering how to get some traffic to your site? Or, maybe you’ve been blogging for a while but your audience is as empty as it was on day one. Queue the tumbleweed. 

Do not fear! Growing your blog’s traffic is easy once you know how to properly utilise your social media platforms. In today’s post we’re going to talk you through the wonders of Instagram, and how it can be used to deliver a regular stream of traffic to your blog. 

Why Instagram is great for bloggers

First off, Instagram attracts over 1 billion users each day. That’s a lot of potential readers for your blog. When used properly, Instagram can serve as a great way to grow both your followers and your readers. Here’s how:

• It allows you to grow a community around your blog
• It’s a platform where you can promote your latest blog
• It enables you to connect with your readers

 Now that we’ve covered the benefits, let’s walk you through the best ways to create and operate a successful Instagram for your blog.

Choose a good username 

A good username will grab attention and draw people to your brand. If you already have a blog name, stick with that so you’re consistent across platforms. 

Pick a niche

If your content is all over the place, you’ll struggle to build a decent following. At the start of your Insta journey, you need to decide what your niche is going to be. This will be the topic or theme of your content.

If you’ve been blogging for a while you might already have a niche, for example if you write about food and publish recipes on your blog then you’re in a great position to build an Instagram page full of food related content. You could post video reels of the dishes being created, and photos of your final products. This will attract an audience who’re interested in food, and are likely to want to read your blogs.  

Master your Instagram bio

Think of your Insta bio as your elevator pitch. In 150 characters you need to persuade your audience to stick around and follow you. You can make use of emojis, hashtags and mentions to make it as interesting as possible. This is the only place you can insert a link too, so make sure you add a link to your blog here. 

Post frequently

It’s no good posting once in a blue moon if you want to build a substantial audience. Consistency is key. Everytime you publish a blog, create an Instagram post letting your followers know. Use high-quality images, attention grabbing captions, and of course, relevant hashtags. 

To optimise your growth rate, aim to post on Instagram 1-6 times per week. So, if you’re only publishing 1 blog per week, you’ll need to try and fill the gaps in between with photos and videos relevant to your chosen niche. It might seem like a lot of effort, but trust us, you’ll thank us later. 

Use relevant hashtags

Hashtags act as a discovery tool that allows anyone interested in your niche to find you. If you’re blogging about upcycling furniture… use hashtags like #upcycle #recycle #repurposed #homeinspo.

Top Tip: don’t use spaces in hashtags, anything after the space won’t be included in the tag. 

Include CTA’s in your posts

Everything we’ve said up to now will help you grow your account and gain followers. But how do you get those all important followers to take the next step and actually read your blog posts? 

This is where CTA’s come in. CTA stands for ‘call to action’, they’re words or phrases used to persuade your audience to perform a specific action. So if you want your followers to open a link to your recent blog post..tell them to. You could say something like the following: I went meat-free for an entire week, read about how I got on here, [insert link]. 

Engage with other bloggers

Within your chosen niche there is bound to be an entire blogging community. Interacting with others’ content will make you more visible in the community, and fellow bloggers might ask you to collaborate which is a great way to expose your brand to a tonne of new potential followers interested in your niche. 

Now you know how to properly utilise Instagram to grow your blog’s audience, there should be no stopping you! Go on, give it a try. 

If you need more advice on how to identify your audience, take a look at this blog we wrote on how to find your social media audience. 

Good luck!

What is a social media manager? The Social Media Manager is responsible for a brand’s online presence, with an emphasis on social platforms. The Social Media Managers job can scale from being the only person in charge of a small brand’s entire social platform presence, creating all of the content and posting it; to managing huge companies online presence. In recent times more and more companies are understanding the vital importance of having an effective online presence, making SMM (Social media manager) one of the most sought after professions in digital marketing. 

What does a social media manager do?

Social Media Managers are in charge of the maintenance of the businesses online presence. So what are the responsibilities of a Social Media Managers? Some of a SMM’s tasks are monitoring, moderating and responding to audience comments; manage social media partnerships with other brands; and creating and posting sharable content such as videos and images. So what makes a good SMM? Communication, good copy, creativity and time management are all great skills to have as a Social Media Manager. This article gives a deeper explanation of the each skill set a SMM should have! Great read too!

Other skills you can work on to optimise your SMM skills:

• Literacy, and the ability to understand analyse

An obvious one. As a social media manager, you live in a world made of photos, but also of words. You have to be able to have a good command of the language, create engaging and interesting copy quickly. Another aspect you need to be aware of is your grasp of the language your brand uses to be aware of implications or be able to play with it. You will also need to know how to quickly research and analyse data, both from yourself and your competitors. being able to successfully analyse events and situations will allow you and your brands to keep up with trends.

• Being able to understand the various social media platforms and their analytics.

As a Social Media Manager, your sole job is to increase the effectiveness of your and online presence. There are four main sets of social media metrics that aid in evaluating the success of your online presence. 

Conversation rate – The number of conversations per post. On Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn comments and on Twitter replies.

Amplification rate – The number of re-shares or retweets per post.

Applause rate – Retweets, Likes, +1s, etc.

Economic value – The sum of short-term revenue, long-term revenue, and cost savings.

Evaluating the success of posts depends on the purpose of the post. Some posts are aiming to have a high reach. Other posts aim to have high link clicks or signups. 

• Being able to use at least one graphics package

This is another obvious one, you are working in the area of brands and branding is a heavily visual art. There are plenty of graphics packages out there, ranging from the simple, like Canva to the complex such as the Adobe suite.  You have to be able to make effective visual displays for your online presence. 

• The ability to plan.

When you are running social media for brands it is very important to have a plan for your content. This prevents you from posting low-quality content, running out of content to post, being unprepared and being unable to reach goals, or even have useful goals. When working for a brand, you have to plan your social media ahead of time so you can show it to your client for approval and have enough time to revise and change it. The interesting thing about social media marketing, unlike normal sales,  is the appearance of being new, unplanned, fresh and up to date. Social media managers have to hit a careful balance between appearing new, fresh, and off the cuff, to the customers and being carefully planned and true to brand with the company.  

• SEO knowledge.

Search Engine optimisation. This is thrown around as mysterious hard understand. It isn’t, it is mainly to do with websites and blogs. There are even plugins to sites such as WordPress who will help you with it. It is less important if you are only running on social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram.  

The best social media manager is someone who understands the platforms, the brand, and is flexible enough to mould both into a successful and engaging presence. It is a modern much more fast-paced version of traditional sales.  

• Being flexible/ spontaneous

As much as we have mentioned the benefits and importance of planning, we have also mentioned the necessity of also being a little spontaneous and taking risks. Sales live off this, you might accidentally create a viral trend, and become very important, or you could terminally embarrass your boss and be forced to put out an apology. Again here experience will help.  

• Valuable content 

Lastly, this is maybe not a skill but more of a statement, this is where social media sales is different from traditional sales. There are a lot of different marketing rules, but there is a general rule which is the 80/20 rule. This rule is 80% useful content talking about something other than yourself, and 20% talking explicitly about yourself. There’s another rule 70/20/10 rule. This rule is a refining of the 80% rule to help you narrow down what you need to post. 70% value, 20% promotion, and 10%, human. 

So, 70% of what the brand is going to post should be of value to its audience. Educational, funny inspiring etc. 20% promotion, discounts, sales, promo codes, giveaways etc.  10%  is the “personal touch”. These posts are often about things the brand cares about, brand values, or seemingly relatable personal things. (a good example of this maybe would be Wendy’s Twitter account when its creator took to roasting people for a few weeks).

In conclusion, a Social Media manager is a person who is responsible for a brand’s online presence. They are a combination of creatives, organisers and salesperson. The job is a flexible multi-faceted sales job, they must be able to understand the basics of advertising, like what campaigns are, but they must also understand the day to day stuff that goes into running a social media presence.

You can be your own social media manager as a business owner, but often that work can get too much for one person to handle. At Byter we specialise in Social Media Management, from content creation, strategy, management and audience engagement. If you need to alleviate some of your work load with social media marketing, don’t hesitate to give us a call or email (Contact page) 

You can also reach out to us on any of our Social Media platforms, we are more than happy to have a chat!