September 2017 - QL Tech

All you need to know about Social Media Marketing

Posted on September 27, 2017November 6, 2019 by admin

Social Media Marketing is the course of gaining website traffic or catching the attention of your target audience through social media sites. Social media is a powerful and influential place. If you follow the right tactics, you can not only earn engagement and increase followers but also generate leads and grow your revenue. If you devise your social media marketing strategy by keeping the social media trends in centric, you will surely come up with a winning strategy.

In this blog, we will take you through the most anticipated FIVE trends. Not only social media marketing trends but this blog also comprehensively covers social media marketing tips and tricks on how to succeed in your digital marketing campaigns. Social Media Marketing Trends and Tips

Lets us peep into the upcoming social media trends

More preference to personalization

Social media is a crowded place. A lot many users post their ads on a lot many social media advertising platforms. It is, hence, a challenge for marketers to get noticed prominently. Here, personalization acts as a saviour. Personalization helps to reach the correct audience and track their buying behaviour based on their search preferences.

You can use social media marketing tools which allow you to incorporate personalized targeting feature. Post your content on social media in front of your high potential customers. More attention to visual marketing

Approximately 64% of the consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it. Video content is on its peak and it is not going anywhere soon. It emphasizes the need and upcoming trend of visual marketing. On the other hand, live streaming versions are on spree. Be it Twitter Periscope, Facebook Live, Instagram Story, video sharing features of DubSmash and others, live feeds are getting way popular. Such videos can engage with your audience very well. All you need here is powerful graphics which can fascinate your viewers. More expansion of native Content Promotion

If you rely on a traditional way of social media advertising, your brand will hardly survive in the highly intensified competition. Audience nowadays is more intelligent and aware of what they want, and probably from where. Based on research, native ads are expected to reach more than $20 billion by 2018. Native advertising is a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in which it is placed. Along with the growing importance of native ads, native content will also grow

More admiration of brand sponsorship by marketers

Brands are looking for various alternate means to reach their target markets. This is because traditional advertisements have reached their saturation level. This will shift the focus of marketers towards brand sponsorship, also known as advocate marketing. Popular brand advocacy tools are LinkedIn elevate, Klout, and Influitive.

Most B2B marketers (89%) agree that customer testimonials are among the most effective content marketing tactics, and 88% cite case studies as well.
www.marketingprofs.com

Brands will make efforts to activate micro-influencers such as employees, customers, partners, and others. More focus on Marketing Automation

If you are in digital marketing, to sustain the intense competition, marketing automation is a must for you. According to Marketo, 91% of users believe that marketing automation is “very important” to the overall success of their marketing across channels.

Marketing automation will see an upward trend in the year 2017. Automation tools can help you in lead management, conversions, retention and feedback as well as provide insights for evaluation and future planning. The main purpose of using these tools is to automate tasks that don’t require personal attention.

You need to formulate your social media marketing strategy by keeping these anticipated trends in the notice. If you are wondering how to do social media marketing, we have come up with social media tips and tricks. Adhere to these top 10 social media tips and tricks and maximize your success on social media

top 10 social media tips for business branding

Formulate social media marketing policy

For being an active and influential social media marketer, you need to formulate your social media marketing policy. Create a plan strategy document (PSD) for all possible media, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus, and others. Your PSD should precisely sketch the way of how to accomplish your goals. You can incorporate your content plan, scheduling of posts, target audience, etc under this document. Utilize social media advertising system

Only PSD will not help to boost your social media marketing, all you need is discipline. Whether you use one social media channel or multiple, you should use a social media management system. This will help you schedule your posts, know your analytics, and manage your repetitive tasks in a timely manner.

Once you know your best time to post, you can then use a tool like Buffer, Post Planner or Sprout Social – both are excellent social media management tools. Usage of these tools can help you plan or schedule your posts at specific intervals. Such tools also help in spreading scheduled posts out to publish throughout the day and engagement time. Repost your posts

Most of the marketers make a mistake here.

Once they share their blog or update, they keep waiting for someone to “like”, “comment”, “share”, or “retweet”. Let’s be practical and accept that every person in the industry would be following a lot many people. Even after a refreshing feed for every five minutes, there are chances that your content gets lost and may not appear in the top of the feed. That’s why repost your posts. Schedule your posts wisely. You can try out varied versions of your titles for the same post. It really helps! Try A/B Testing for Ads

Facebook Ads A/B testing is the most effective way to successful campaigns. Its targeting options are robust. Facebook will display your ad to the right audience only. A perfect ad can magically boost your ROI and radically increase the reach of your posts. To increase the likelihoods of your social media success, analyze the performance of your ads. Concentrate on your social media content

Pay special attention to your social media content. It is the online face of your brand. Keep it authentic, non-plagiarized, relevant and updated. Your images, links, and titles should be fresh, engaging, and intriguing for your readers. A tool we found to be very nifty when it comes to posting evergreen content is Tailwind. Use visual content as much as possible. Approximately 64% of the consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it. Video content is at its peak and it is not going anywhere soon. Make your content bank

Creative content creation

Don’t just create content when it is time to post. Instead, prepare your social media content bank. Based on the recent trends and updates, you can make quality amendments in your content bank. Create your content bank now, if you haven’t yet. It should include blogs, articles, info graphs, tutorials, webinars, videos, eBooks, cheat sheets, templates, reports, case studies and others. Make the most use of visual content

Did you know 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual? It taps into the intuitive psyche of your audience and motivates them to discover more about your brand.

Visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than the text.
3M Corporation

Visual content

Visual content has the ability to present complex information in a quick and clear manner. Images, info graphs, videos, memes, presentations, and screenshots are some of the types of visual content. Visual content is easy to understand and handy to share. Your visual content will get more shares as compared to your textual content. Explore the benefits of contests and promotions

People on social media love to interact. They enjoy participating in quizzes, contests and polls. Social media is a beautiful place for engagement. Try to get the attention by vote contest, photo contest, caption contest, and others to promote your brand. If you promote any special offer, include discounts for your audience. It is an exceptional way to offer value through your social media channels and award people an incentive to keep on following you. Keep an eye on your competitors

Sarcastic but true, competitors are real motivators. You should keep an eye on what and how they are doing on social media platforms. Notice their way of engagement, what they post, when they post, what is unique about them, etc. This will help you frame your marketing strategy in a much better and healthier way. Stay updated with the industry trends

Last but not the least;

stay updated with what’s going on in the industry you serve. Industry trends can significantly impact your business and marketing strategy. If you identify the market trends early enough then it is easier to plan for changes. You can grow your business successfully. The best way is to subscribe to social media blogs to keep you aware of recent news, amendments, and advancements.

Conclusion

Social media is gaining huge traction for digital marketing. All you need to know about powerful and effective social media marketing is wrapped up in this blog, including trends, tips, tricks and strategies for social media agencies. Keep the latest and upcoming social media trends into notice and accordingly devise your social media marketing strategy. Get started now to succeed at reaching and engaging your target market

5 Tips On How to Strengthen Personal Branding

Posted on September 21, 2017November 6, 2019 by admin

This post is by guest author, Niraj Ranjan. This article has been edited and published with the author’s permission.

What is your personal brand? Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos once said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.”

A personal brand is something that all of us who has at least one social media account have to worry about. Your digital and social footprint is more important than you would imagine.

A company that wants to hire you will certainly Google you before taking a final call; a research team will check out your online profile prior to granting you a fellowship; even your potential date will say yes to you only after running a quick search on you. So you see, it’s very important!

Mastering the art of personal branding can also help you become an influencer – quite a superpower in the digital age.

Here are some tips that can help you build a strong personal brand:

1. Always be authentic

Authenticity, be it in personal or professional life, is well-received and well appreciated by the people around you. A fake version of you or your brand can stand only for a while and is never the best strategy. Fake also involves being overly self-promotional. As a rule, for any brand, it is advisable to follow 1:5 policy when you produce content or market. It means offer 5 valuable points to the reader; in return, earn the right to talk about you once.

In addition, being fake involves a lot of non-required work. At last, you will end up looking inconsistent and untrustworthy. For example, if you are against the use of tech gadgets, don’t act otherwise so as to please people around you or your audience.

2. Communicate appropriately

The art of communication is the language of leadership – James Humes

The way you communicate has a major impact on your overall personal branding success.

It is important to have enough social intelligence on how to present yourself in a given situation. Here are some key tips:

Don’t address your senior executives as ‘guys’.
Be witty, light, and humorous while talking to a younger audience, but never sound an egoistic or arrogant.
Pay attention to what you say when you are trying to communicate your ideas and opinions. Being clear and crisp is the key to avoid misunderstanding.
Make sure that during one-to-one conversations your body language is in sync with your words. If you say that you are happy, your behaviour has to reflect that.
Ensure to respond as promptly as possible. For instance, use tools like email reminders to ensure that you don’t forget to reply back to an email.

3. Focus on relevant social media platforms

Social media marketing is cost-effective as well as smart medium to build your personal brand. However, it is important to choose and focus on the social media platforms that are relevant to you and your end goal.

A few examples:

If you want to attract recruiters and employers, a professional network such as LinkedIn is where you have to make a lot of noise.
If you are looking to build a brand amongst your friends and social circle, Instagram and Facebook would be your best bet.
If you are a critic and want to spread your reach, again Facebook and Twitter can come to your aid.

And so on…

It is important to identify your audience and figure out where they hang out the most- you can exercise this out by doing a little research online.

For instance, 67% of the internet users are on Facebook and the majority of them are women; so if you want to target women online, you should start with Facebook4. Be updated with the latest information

If I visit your Facebook page and see that your last update was months’ ago, I definitely would not be impressed enough to follow you. Being present and being up to date is crucial.

Everyone now has access to 3G and 4G networks. News and information travel like wildfire and so do feedbacks and opinions. If you want to build a personal brand, you need to stay with the flow or even better stay ahead of the flow.

For example,

if the purpose of your personal branding is to establish yourself as a thought leader, your audience expects you to have opinions and things to say about the latest events happening in your industry. In case a company that belongs to your industry is going bankrupt, they expect some reaction/response from you, as a thought leader.5. Avoid being the jack of all trades

The first thing you need to do before making any attempt at personal branding is to find your niche. What is so unique about you? Something, which only you can offer?

For example, if you are running a blog, do not overwhelm your audience with a wide range of topics and things to say. This sort of brand confusion will lead to a very weakly established brand.

Being all over the place, having multiple interests, and trying to have your foot in every door can signal a lack of expertise and credibility in any one area.

Here are some tips:

Have a central theme to everything you say. For example, if you are all about gender equality, making it the central theme of every story and every message.
Don’t make your message/key point a riddle. The gist of your message has to be clear, crisp, and apparently obvious.
Again presentation matters a lot. Tailor your message to match your audience.

Final thoughts

Back in good old days, your resume was enough to demonstrate your competence; however, it’s not the case anymore. Companies and teams want you only if you show more than a list of accomplishments on one page. They need to see who you are and what your attitude is towards life. This is what building your personal brand is all about. Just like you market a service/product to the world, you market your ability and competence through personal branding.

Top 11 Australian Digital Marketing Blogs to follow

Posted on September 12, 2017November 6, 2019 by admin

Blogging in a determined and forceful way with a search-oriented strategy is one of the most killer SEO tips. Whenever we visit any website, first of all, we normally tend to visit ‘about us’ page and ‘blog’ page to know more about the website, business, people that run the business, and read their minds through their blogging pattern.

The blog section is important for all businesses to drive organic traffic to your website. Live blog pages embark better impression and active presence of a business on visitors’ minds. And, if you are a digital marketing agency, how can you afford not doing blogging? This blog is an attempt to help all local digital marketing agencies to know about the most popular of Australia’s digital marketing blogs.

Here We Present Top 11 Australia’s Digital Marketing blogs to follow:

1. Arrow Internet

Arrow Digital (also known as Arrow Internet) is a digital marketing agency based in Melbourne, the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria.

Their core values are aimed at “inspiring and achieving outstanding outcomes for Australian businesses through best in class internet marketing method”.

Their blog categories cover all aspects and all elements of digital marketing. To name a few, categories include SEO, content marketing, conversions, Google algorithms, social media marketing, and website usability. Among all categories, the richest category, in our opinion, is social media marketing. It comprises of various news, updates, events, and ‘how to’ posts.

2. Blogger Sidekick

Blogger sidekick is also a digital marketing agency based in Sydney, the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Interestingly, their blog categories comprise case studies, promotional tactics, marketing strategies, and others. Among all, we found the “creation” section as the most interesting read. It focuses on all nuances of how to create ‘something’ that adds value to the user – be it content, blog, or keyword research.

3. Canva

Those who are in the field of content marketing and web designing would surely be aware of the tool called ‘Canva’. It is an awesome tool that is extensively used for its drag-and-drop interface, cool fonts, professional layouts, and many user-friendly features. Canva has its presence in Sydney, Australia.

Blogs published by Canva are not just restricted to graphics and designing methods. However, they also cover areas of social media marketing and content marketing. Furthermore, Canva also provides tutorials and webinars in their niche.

4. Digital Buzz Blog

Digital Buzz is ranked #15 in the AdAge Power150 bloggers list, for the most powerful marketing and advertising blogs, around the world.

As the name suggests, it is a fantastic blog that creates a buzz among readers. Once it was ranked as number 1 marketing blog that has its core focus on digital. Digital Buzz was founded by an editor, Aden Hepburn, who proficiently draws readers in with unique concepts and touchy intros.

To note, Digital Buzz is all about advertising and marketing online with creativity and efficiency. It has not only high authority but also good reliability. Digital Buzz Blog covers literally everything from the latest and trending digital campaigns to buzzing industry trends and the latest news. The topmost global web campaigns are shared in this portal on a daily basis which draws Australian as well as a global audience. Those who love case studies and stories over plain text blogs must visit and subscribe to Digital Buzz Blog.

5. Global Copywriting / Lush Digital Media

Global Copywriting, a content marketing agency based in beautiful Perth, Australia was acquired by Lush Digital Media in 2015.

The core functional areas of Lush Digital are content marketing and video production. If you want to excel your knowledge of content marketing and social media marketing, do peep in here for excellent training videos, webinars, infographics, and blogs. Even if you are a beginner in the field of content marketing, do explore the section “writing” of their blogs. Content marketing consultant Sarah Mitchell’s blogs are an awesome mine of fantastic tips, guidance, and views on copywriting that open new avenue to market your online presence.

6. Jeff Bullas

There is hardly anyone in the digital marketing industry that doesn’t know Jeff Bullas from Sydney, Australia. He is a blogger, consultant, mentor, instructor, and speaker who work with companies to optimize their online presence via exploring social media platforms and other technologies.

Also, his website receives over 5 million visitors a year. In addition. his blog topics cover a wide range of spectrum ranging from entrepreneurship, innovation, social media, digital marketing, and content to marketing automation. Even if you are a pro in digital marketing, do subscribe his blogs to read ‘personal growth’ section.

7. Mumbrella

Mumbrella is far more than just a blogging platform. In fact, it can be considered as an authentic media and marketing motivation on the overall Australian marketing view.

Mumbrella serves as industry journalism. Here, marketers rely upon a good story, authentic news, case studies, and any type of content that sounds most interesting. Hence, even if you do not want to surf for digital marketing blogs, this platform is good enough to entertain you with some of the best Australian marketing and media coverage.

8. ProBlogger

ProBlogger is way beyond a normal blogging platform. In addition, the platform has more than 8000 articles and tutorials. However, over and above, you will be able to surf for podcasts, eBooks, job boards, tips, and tools by Darren Rowse that help you build a better blog!

ProBlogger, more than sheer an Australian blog portal, is a globally recognized source of information. ProBlogger is all about useful and sensible content creation. Hence, if you are hunting for tips to improve your productivity and creativity in the content writing, end your search at ProBlogger. It will aid you to gain eyeballs for your writing.

9. SMPerth

SMPerth, i.e. Social Media Perth, is a community for businesses and brands who embrace social media in their marketing strategy to mingle to meet and exchange ideas. SMPerth is considered as a premier networking events platform.

Every month, it organizes a meet up for entrepreneurs, consultants, and businesses that apply and adore social media. Their resources section on the website is rich in the latest and trending digital marketing articles. Furthermore, it offers a number of up skilling opportunities in the field of digital marketing throughout the year.

10. PR Warriors

PR Warrior is owned by a passionate and knowledgeable keynote marketing speaker, Trevor Young. He stays in Melbourne, Australia. PR warrior, founded in 2007, is a useful hub of information for marketers. Here, you will be able to dig most useful articles, podcasts, live video streams, case studies, and slides that will be quite useful to a pioneering blogger, podcaster, or a social media analyst.

Those digital marketers who are looking for trending articles and observations on the latest trends, it’s the perfect place for them to visit. One can keep himself aware of the latest news pertaining to everything that is happening in the industry.

Be it long-form posts or reports, eBooks – PR Warrior is an absolute treasure. The posts of PR Warrior comprise whole and sole. Example, it starts with content creation to book recommendations, interviews with industry personalities, and others.

11. King Content Blog

When we talk about digital marketing blogs, how we can forget the blogs that cater to one of the most important aspects – i.e. content marketing. As you might be knowing, King content has a global presence including locations of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Singapore, Hongkong, London, and New York. They are into social media marketing, content marketing, and native advertising. Their blog categories have a core focus on content marketing and social media.

However, the blog is not intently or internally focussed and instead offers fantastic resources for content marketers from Australia and beyond. Further, the most interesting read section which you can think of subscribing is ‘This Week in Content Marketing’ posts. These are regular flourishing pieces of advice that help digital marketers.

At last!!

Hope you enjoyed reading this piece and thinking of subscribing. Though we have tried to curate the list of Top 11 Australian digital marketing blogs to follow, feel free to add more in the comments box. We would love to hear from you.

Laravel – A Trending PHP Framework today

Posted on September 5, 2017November 6, 2019 by admin

This post is by guest author, Sunny Chawla. This article has been edited and published with the author’s permission.

The phrase of web development in the IT industry is changing day by day. This is not only for the hard work that is inputting by the developers but also for the performance of advanced frameworks. Especially, open-source applications that help web developers to do the great work in a minimum time frame, and Laravel is surely one of them. Laravel is an out-and-out FREE open-source PHP web-based framework, discovered by Taylor Otwell. The most trending PHP framework, Laravel, is intended for the purpose of development of web application that follows the model view controller (MVC) architectural pattern.

Laravel is the best and trending PHP framework to date. It is easier and quicker to use. Most of the developers these days are using Laravel to develop websites and develop web applications at the same time.

If you have not used it yet, you are advised to use it now.

Most Trending PHP Framework Web development

The utility of Laravel

Laravel normally attempts to take the pain out of the development or revamping of the web application. Laravel, a trending PHP framework, eases common works that are performed in the majority of the web projects. Such tasks comprise authentication, routing, minimum sessions as well as caching. Laravel, generally, aims to make the web development part a pleasing one for the developers without forfeiting the application functionality. And, this is the main function of Laravel.

Another reason why Laravel is a trending PHP framework is it offers multiple and endless functionalities. It is one of the easier and quicker PHP frameworks that have been preferred in almost all parts of the world. Millions of developers, these days, make use of the Laravel framework to enhance the speed and efficiency of web development.

Why is Laravel the best?

Along with Symfony2, Nette, CodeIgniter, Yii2 and other frameworks, Laravel is regarded as one of the most popular PHP frameworks.

It is a library that makes the life of the website developers easier and quicker. As an example, it has the ability to hide some of the difficulties of HTTP i.e. hypertext transport protocol by adjoining some of the most useful functions as well as objectives. If you are a web developer, you must be sure that Laravel among all other PHP frameworks is a fantastic way to accelerate your web development process.

Laravel has skyrocketed past the rivalry among all PHP Frameworks. This is because of its huge community of users, flexible and scalable architecture, and robust built-in templating and application management tools. Laravel has marked an impression among the web developers as the most hardcore and easier PHP frameworks

Laravel – the trending PHP Framework for Website Artisans

As discussed above, Laravel is a free and open-source as well as a widely used PHP web framework. Laravel is used in all sort of web application development – small, medium and large. There are certainly many different reasons for which Laravel is one of the most trending PHP frameworks now for the purpose of website development.

Now let us discuss the Laravel framework and its use in different types of website application development. Have a glance on the benefits of using this framework that generally most of the web developers do.

Laravel is one of the best PHP frameworks for web artisans. Developers who use this PHP framework know it very well. The enormous benefits of using Laravel make it the most trending PHP framework among all editors. Laravel is a simple authentication tool that can give you the tools you need to have for the purpose of the modern and maintainable PHP framework. If you need to taste the modern PHP framework that is quicker and easier to apply for all types of web application projects, then Laravel can be your choice for sure.

Benefits of Using Laravel

Some of the most trending things or the benefits of using Laravel, a trending PHP framework, for web development are:

It has expressive as well as beautiful codes that only Laravel kind of framework can give you.
Laravel can be a tailored PHP framework for your large team, easy to use and a quick one for sure.
If you are a solo web developer and your preference is value elegance, simplicity, and readability, Laravel can be your best choice.
Even you have a team of 20 or more developers, then also Laravel is for you.
Experts say Laravel is nothing but a breath of fresh air. You can easily and quickly keep everyone in sync using Laravel valuable database-agnostic migration as well as schema builder.
Laravel is one of the most reliable modern toolkits that is widely known as the pinch of magic.
It can give you amazing online reputation management.
It can give you a painless routing with a powerful as well as robust queue library.

Laravel can be your valet, mix, style, spark, lumen and strategic one for web application development. If you are looking for a handy PHP framework that is dependable and makes your development life easier, go for Laravel. It is certainly helpful in code maintenance for the purpose of development. It assists you in managing all of your assets in different files, such as routers and other things like configuration files.

Closing words

Laravel has a few high-calibre artisans command the availability that you can run prior to the deployment of the website. As a trusted and powerful open source, Laravel is available across the world. This is the most essential as well as trending PHP framework. Laravel helps to enhance the performance of your developers while revamping or development the fresh or existing web applications. However, a deep technical knowledge, as well as an adequate amount of time, is required from your end in a web development process.

Laravel is believed a great web development framework and for a web development framework should be enjoyable, creative and truly fulfilling. Laravel has all the things in one. It attempts to take the pain out of the web application development by easing the common jobs used in the great number of web application projects. If you use the Laravel PHP framework, you know the difference of using it.