People Who Inspire Us: Meet Ingrid Ulrich

Ever hear a personal story that’s so captivating that you want to share it with others? At Agorapulse, we’ve heard some extraordinary stories from people who live life at a deeper, inspirational level. And we want to share them with you.

In this new series, we share the experiences of such people, one narrative at a time. We’ll dig deep into what inspires us about them, how they overcame daunting challenges that threatened to distract them from their focus, and what they’ve learned along their journeys.

Ingrid Ulrich: Domestic Abuse Survivor, Cancer Fighter & Adventurer Extraordinaire

As a girl, Ingrid Ulrich dreamed of fantastic adventures and expeditions. Her imagination ran along the paths of explorers, who were her heroes.

But the dream of being an explorer felt too big and out of reach for her. “I always thought it was for others,” says Ingrid.

The word “adventure” and Ingrid weren’t going to be linked together—yet.

Her calling to adventure and exploration was buried inside her heart for a long time. And it remained dormant within her for more than a decade.

Domestic Abuse Survivor

Dreaming of adventure is difficult when one is just trying to survive life, day by day.

Ingrid’s life was whittled down to a moment-by-moment survival. Half-buried in a marriage to a violent man, Ingrid had no confidence, no belief in her own physical strength, only a threadbare sense of self-worth.

During this already difficult time, Ingrid had a violent fall off a horse and found herself confined to a wheelchair.

However, despite all these seemingly overwhelming challenges, she found her inner strength and spirit of perseverance.

“The horse fall, a year in a wheelchair, and the doubt of not being able to walk normally allowed me to develop the motto of: never, never give up.”

An economics management teacher at a vocational high school, Ingrid soon added a new description for how she saw herself: a solo athlete.

Not only did Ingrid learn to walk normally, but she also walked away from a decade-long abusive relationship.

Her work soon included making time to help other women in abusive relationships and showing them how to escape the horror of domestic abuse and establish good, healthy lives for themselves and their children.

Ingrid had learned this lesson for herself: “It was during my solo expeditions that I regained my confidence. I had to rely on myself, whether it was at sea, in the forest, or at the top of a mountain.”

Cancer Fighter

Just as Ingrid’s adventurous life was unfurling, she developed cancer.

Once more, the focus became survival. Radiation, chemotherapy, hair loss, breast ablation, all had to be endured.

But the woman who now faced cancer had endured hardship and knew her inner strength and how to cope, mentally and physically, with this battle.

“I’ve come back even stronger and even more determined to realize my dreams,” Ingrid says. “Even the wildest dreams.”

Adventurer

Ingrid’s scrappiness, fighting spirit, and strength would not let her give up on her dreams of adventure.

“Going on an adventure is a concentrate of emotion,” Ingrid says. “There is fear, disappointment, joy, euphoria, hope, and happiness with an overdrive intensity. It teaches how to handle mistakes as inevitable elements of any trajectory and has sharpened its sense of priorities. Every day we learn something.”

And so, she still embarks on explorations, despite all (perhaps even because of all) she endured.

“What I have lived allowed me to become who I am today and finally … myself,” Ingrid says.

“Sometimes, I even think that I was lucky to have lived this life. Otherwise, I might have waited for my life to pass, telling myself that I was not able to realize my dreams.”

Ingrid’s adventures have included:

• Crossing the Aegean Sea and the Dodecanese islands in SUP (stand up paddleboard)
• Crossing the Mediterranean in SUP
• Med’Ocean Challenge in SUP

“What fascinates me in nature is that, by such surprises, it makes you feel its strength, its ability to dominate us and our insignificance in the face of a hostile environment,” Ingrid writes on her blog.

“Nature forces us to be humble, to admit that we cannot always control it, despite our efforts. It is when the conditions become complicated that the notion of perseverance and trust takes on their full value.

“During an adventure, when we are forced to spend time with ourselves, we never come back the same,” Ingrid explains. “After each adventure, I came back a little happier to live with myself and with others.”

And her expeditions continue on …

Gone Adventuring: Will Contact Soon

Ingrid’s current adventure has taken her to the “wildest and most hostile parts of the planet.”

Her destination: Ilulissat, Greenland.

“On the ice floe and in the middle of the icebergs, I will reach the fishing hunters’ village of Oquaatsut, before rowing towards the Bay of Quervain, where [there’s] the hut of the first polar expeditions of Paul Emile Victor,” Ingrid said in a recent interview.

How cold is Ilulissat? Its very name means “icebergs” in the West Greenlandic language if that’s any indication.

But the cold doesn’t faze Ingrid, who sent us a quick email as soon as she landed there four-planes later.

“I’m in Ilulissat!” she wrote. “It’s 350 km of the Arctic circle, where there are more dogs than people.”

(She’s not exaggerating: 3,000 people live in this municipal seat of Greenland—as do 5,000 dogs.)

“I won’t be in contact until I get back!”

Find out more about Ingrid’s current adventure, her challenges, and reflections in this series of articles, starting in mid-April.

Meanwhile, Ingrid’s adventuring in Greenland, embracing life, overcoming challenges, and reflecting on it all during the quiet moments.

Safe travels, Ingrid.

Ingrid’s one of Agorapulse’s inspirations—and proof that you don’t need a ton of money to do amazing things. You just need a dream, a plan for that dream, and good old scrappiness, all traits that Ingrid has (and that this bootstrapped start-up admires).

People Who Inspire Us: Meet Ingrid Ulrich posted first on http://getfblikeblog.blogspot.com

6 Simple Ways You Can Use Neuroscience to Increase Marketing Productivity

Neuroscience is a multidisciplinary science that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the nervous system. When applied to our professional lives, neuroscience can help us to unlock our greatest potential.

Increasing your meaningful productivity can have a huge impact on your day-to-day work and can greatly influence your professional success over a long period of time.

This week on the Science of Social Media, we’re examining the fascinating field of neuroscience and how it can positively influence our marketing productivity.

Think of today’s show as little tricks for your brain to work smarter, not harder.

6 Simple Ways to Use Neuroscience to Increase Marketing Productivity

What follows is a detailed summary of the episode transcript. Feel free to jump around and explore each of these top marketing lessons from history’s most influential leaders in this week’s Science of Social Media:

• Willpower and working smarter, not harder
• Start your day with difficult tasks
• Add value and meaning to your work
• Avoid multitasking
• Take a deep breath
• Create a to-do list
• Take a break and move

Let’s dive in!

Willpower and working smarter, not harder

One of core values here at Buffer is working smarter and not harder.

When we say productivity and working smarter not harder, we mean working on meaningful projects that make a big impact – not necessarily working more.

In the American Psychological Association’s annual “Stress in America” survey, participants were asked to assess their ability to make healthy lifestyle choices, and willpower was the number one reason they cited for not following through with those healthy choices.

Many people believe their lives would improve if they could boost their willpower — more control over what they eat, when they saved for retirement, and how to achieve goals.

Luckily for us, using neuroscience we are able to increase our willpower, and therefore, our meaningful productivity.

Start your day with difficult tasks

First and foremost, start your day with your difficult tasks

There’s been considerable research into willpower and one of the pioneers in this area is Roy Baumeister.

Baumeister discovered that willpower actually operates like a muscle: it can be strengthened with practice and fatigued by overuse. Willpower in the brain is fueled by glucose and it needs to replenished in order for it to perform optimally.

Willpower and self-control is at its peak first thing in the morning, so this is the best time to make yourself take on the hardest tasks of the day.

When creating your to-do list (more on that later), make sure that you carve our time in the morning for the most challenging tasks. This will help to ensure you’re starting your day on the right foot.

Add value and meaning to your work

One subject that comes up quite often when looking into the field of neuroscience is dopamine. Dopamine a neurotransmitter, which means it’s a chemical release by your nerve cells to send signals to other nerve cells.

There are a couple of different pathways for dopamine, and one of them plays a major role in the motivational component of reward-motivated behavior.

A team of Vanderbilt scientists conducted a study in 2012 analyzing the brain patterns of people they described as “go getters” and that meant they were willing to work hard for their reward, and the other group of people was “slackers” and they were not as motivated to work hard.

To quote the study “The team found that the go-getters had higher levels of dopamine in the reward and motivation part of the brain. The slackers had higher levels of dopamine in the emotion and risk part of the brain.”

Nothing will motivate you to be a go-getter if you don’t truly desire the reward that comes with the work. Tie your performance to something that contains value and meaning for you and you’ll quickly move to the go-getter side of dopamine production.

Avoid multitasking

We all like to believe that we’re master multitaskers.

NPR interviewed neuroscientist professor Earl Miller from MIT and he shared some interesting thoughts about multitasking. In short, the human brain is not engineered to multitask.

Miller is quoted as saying, “People can’t multitask very well, and when people say they can, they’re deluding themselves, the brain is very good at deluding itself.”

What we can do, however, is shift our focus from one thing to the next with astonishing speed.

The way to be most productive is to focus your full attention on one task at a time. Give it everything you’ve got. Then, once you’ve completed the task, move onto the next one and give that your full attention.

When you’re creating content for social, close out your email, turn off Slack, put your phone in your bag and focus fully on the content.

Take a deep breath

When you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed, take a deep breath.

In a new study, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and their colleagues have identified a handful of nerve cells in the brainstem that connect breathing to states of mind.

The study demonstrated that slow breathing induces tranquility to your body. And if you think of it, that makes sense. Because if you were to start breathing really quickly right now you’d feel the state of your body starting to change completely.

We know that as marketers and business owners, tasks can really start to pile up throughout the day. Sometimes we feel like we won’t be able to complete everything, let alone at a high level.

Breathing not only reduces stress and increases focus, but it helps to bring a sense of clarity of what really needs to get done and what can be put off for another time.

When you have a million things to do during the day, that clarity is invaluable.

Create a to-do list

There’s nothing like a good to-do list.

It turns out we are not alone in our love of lists, our brains also love lists. That’s because it’s the most effective way for the brain to receive and organize information. Recent research suggests that the key to a more organized mind and productive brain is to make to-do lists.

Neuroscience tells us that the brain’s working memory stores information on a short-term basis.

According to Dr. Daniel Levitin, most people can hold about four things in their mind at one time. When we ask our brain to store more than is optimal, it causes our performance to decline.

Since our brain has an attention filter, urgent matters will be at the forefront. At the same time, our brain doesn’t forget those less important matters either, and won’t hesitate to remind you of them somewhere around 3:00am. If you have a to-do list, your brain can rest because it knows you’re on it.

Research also suggests that when we process information, we do so spatially.

Lists appeal to our general tendency to categorize things—in fact, it’s hard for us not to categorize something the moment we see it—since our brains chunk information into short, distinct components.

Take a break and move

Research into neurogenesis, the ability of certain areas of the brain to grow new cells, indicates that we can foster new brain cell growth through exercise. Our brain has the amazing ability to rebuild and rewire every day.

The area of the brain linked to learning and memory is called the hippocampus. Research shows that endurance exercise sparks new neuron growth in the hippocampus as a protein (called FNDC5) is released into the bloodstream when we sweat.

There’s also other productivity benefits as well.

Exercise can help boost alertness. When you exercise, you’re increasing blood flow to the brain, which can help sharpen your awareness and make you more ready to tackle your next big project.

According to the University of Cambridge, exercise releases serotonin into your brain that helps you feel better and improves your state of mind, making the stresses of work easier to handle.

Daily exercise results in:

• Improved concentration
• Sharper memory
• Faster learning
• Prolonged mental stamina
• Enhanced creativity
• Lower stress

An incredible tool in your neuroscience toolbox.

How to say hello to us

We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!

• Hailley on Twitter and Hailley’s Website
• Brian on Twitter and Brian’s Website

Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 27,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

6 Simple Ways You Can Use Neuroscience to Increase Marketing Productivity posted first on http://getfblikeblog.blogspot.com

Inside Look: How Two Teams Share a Social Media Inbox

8 Unexpected Marketing Lessons from History’s Most Influential Leaders

This week we’re taking a journey through time and uncovering some of the greatest, yet most unexpected marketing lessons from some of history’s most influential thinkers, philosophers, and leaders.

You may not realize it now, but there is so much we can learn from leaders like Socrates and Oprah and Cleopatra. Much of what they would consider their mantra has a ton of implications on marketing today.

In episode 141 of the Science of Social Media, Brian and Hailley break down concepts like the Socratic Method, transparency, rhetoric, and lots more.

8 Unexpected Marketing Lessons from History’s Most Influential Leaders

What follows is a detailed summary of the episode transcript. Feel free to jump around and explore each of these top marketing lessons from history’s most influential leaders in this week’s Science of Social Media:

• 1. Aristotle
• 2. Socrates
• 3. Oprah Winfrey
• 4. Abraham Lincoln
• 5. Catherine the Great
• 6. Martin Luther King Jr.
• 7. Cleopatra
• 8. Eleanor Roosevelt

Let’s dive in!

1. Aristotle

One of the most well-known philosophies of the Greek philosopher, Aristotle (born in 384 BC), is his idea of persuasion, otherwise known as rhetoric.

He breaks down persuasion into the three categories: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos.

These three concepts can be valuable for content marketers, writers, and bloggers. After all, isn’t persuasion one of the most important parts in marketing?

• Logos: The application of logic in efforts to persuade. Logos tries to persuade an audience using logical arguments and supportive evidence.
• Pathos: Playing to human emotions. Using anecdotes and stories, marketers can connect with their audience, adding a human element to content.
• Ethos: The concept of ethics. It works off the idea that it is impossible to persuade anyone of anything if you’re not credible.

You must establish your credibility and reputation as a writer. This is done through personal branding and your ability to build a following. Ideally this would results in brand building and thought leadership.

2. Socrates

Next up on our list of marketing lessons from historical leaders, born 90 years before Aristotle, is Socrates.

Those that took a middle school science class learned about the Socratic Method. The Socratic Method is used in asking questions and posing theories to investigate and to stimulate the foundation of new ideas.

The Socratic Method applies to the interactive aspect of marketing. Get your readers involved by asking them questions or looking for their ideas on certain issues and engage them with interactive content.

Invite your audience to engage in a lively debate. Actively involve them in your marketing process so that your team can generate new product ideas, marketing campaigns, and content topics based on the feedback you’ve received directly from the people that matter most.

Most of all, don’t forget that the Socratic Method applies internally as well. Your team should be debating and questioning trends, norms, traditions, and ideas at all times.

3. Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey has built much of the rapport she has with fans by being honest throughout her career.

Oprah stayed true to herself and was honest to her audience through ups and downs. She also held her guests to this standard as well – ensuring that honesty was always the number one priority.

The benefit of this honesty and transparency in marketing is that it helps to build trust with your customers. Think of all of the brands that create a memorable customer experience by being genuine, human and transparent.

A modern social media strategy demands authenticity and being transparent is something you can’t ignore. That is one of the most important marketing lessons Oprah has taught us from her success.

4. Abraham Lincoln

As the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln became famous primarily because of his contributions to the abolition of slavery and the American Civil War. But aside from his political and human rights achievements, Lincoln is also known for his oratory skills.

He has articulated some of the most memorable lines throughout his political career. In fact, his Gettysburg Address in 1863 became the most quoted speech in US history.

His words live on as we apply them in the perspective of marketing, particularly when it comes to planning and preparation.

Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.”

Marketers should understand that the more time spent on preparation, the less work they have to do in executing.

In addition, Lincoln taught us that it’s not about the amount of hours you work or the number of projects you launch, it’s about the quality of those hours and projects.

Focusing on fewer, but more impactful projects and campaigns will improve your brand’s results and most likely make you more successful in your career as well.

5. Catherine the Great

One of the most influential political leaders of the Eighteenth Century, Catherine the Great was said to have played an important role in improving the welfare of Russian serfs.

She placed emphasis on the arts and helped to cement Russia as one of the dominant countries in Europe.

Catherine the Great is a shining example to modern marketers that it often takes incredible courage to make your vision come true.

In Catherine the Great’s time, smallpox was a terrible problem throughout what is now the united kingdom and Russia. Catherine heard of the new inoculation treatments in England and risked the entire dynasty to travel and get her and her son inoculated.

We know that creativity requires original thinking and transcending traditional ideas, yet we’re so inundated with incoming information, that it becomes harder and harder to truly think for ourselves.

6. Martin Luther King Jr.

Very few people in American history are as celebrated as Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister and social activist who led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

When examining King from a marketing perspective, he teaches us that not only carefully crafting, but truly believing in and embodying your brand message is critical for people to buy into what you’re saying.

As marketers, it’s only when we truly believe in our message and stand behind it 100% that can it be successful.

Carefully crafting your message is time well spent and pays ten-fold in the long run.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is world-famous still today. We might compare that world-famous effect with going viral. Messages that are particularly well-crafted spread like wildfire throughout the Internet.

The marketing lessons bestowed from MLK Jr. include saying what you want to say as quickly and clearly as you can.

Use words everyone understands. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech isn’t an hour long or even 30 minutes. It’s 17-minutes in total and something that changed the course of history forever.

7. Cleopatra

One of the more interesting, yet fairly unknown historical leaders on our list is Cleopatra. C

Cleopatra ruled ancient Egypt for almost three decades. Well-educated and clever, Cleopatra could speak 6 different languages and was known as a strong and charismatic ruler. During her reign, she forged political alliances with Roman military leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Antony – which helped to hold many regions together over decades.

In terms of marketing lessons, Cleopatra had an incredible knack for seeing the bigger picture.

As marketers it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day: writing articles, posting to social media, analyzing our efforts, and everything that comes with the role.

Sometimes we forget to look up and ask: “why”? Why are we doing this? How does what we’re doing at this moment contribute to the greater goal?

We need to understand how our tactics relate to the strategy and matching our behavior to that understanding.

8. Eleanor Roosevelt

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt is a perfect example of a leader that practiced creative innovation – including helping redefine and shape the role of the First Lady.

She not only participated in radio broadcasts, she also authored a daily syndicated column, held press conferences to discuss women’s issues, and was an active supporter of civil rights policies and New Deal social-welfare programs.

Her ability to redefine expectations is a reminder that great marketers always look for opportunities to break the mold. To get to the next level in marketing, we must think outside the box to what seems unimaginable.

Make space to think. Make space to challenge assumptions. Make space to break things.

So what is it that you hope to accomplish? Does it seem too big or too scary to do?

We hope you challenge that notion and set your goals as high as they can go.

How to say hello to us

We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!

• Hailley on Twitter and Hailley’s Website
• Brian on Twitter and Brian’s Website

Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 27,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

8 Unexpected Marketing Lessons from History’s Most Influential Leaders posted first on http://getfblikeblog.blogspot.com

How to Use Facebook Attribution to Scale Your Conversions

If you’ve been running ads on multiple platforms like Facebook and Google, you’ve probably had difficulties determining how to attribute your conversions. For example, did your most recent sale come solely through a Facebook ad, or was it a combination of Facebook, Adwords, and organic search?

Not knowing which sources are responsible for specific actions (like conversions) makes it difficult to allocate and scale your advertising. Should you invest more in Adwords or Facebook ads? It depends on which is converting more effectively.

Fortunately, the Facebook attribution tool helps set this straight. It eliminates the guesswork, so you can get more out of your advertising.

What Exactly Is Facebook Attribution?

The Facebook attribution tool helps you better understand how users interact with your ads to determine the “customer’s journey” leading up to actual conversion.

You then can pinpoint when a user clicked on an ad, followed a link, watched a video, performed various tasks in your e-commerce store, and so on.

You can even dial down into whether paid or organic sources work better, if users are converting strictly through mobile devices, or if they use multiple platforms to interact with your content.

That data helps you determine your best marketing course of action and to scale your advertising accordingly.

Facebook Pixel and Conversion Tracking

For Facebook attribution to work, you must first install the Facebook pixel code on your website. You also need to create a custom conversion or event, so Facebook knows when a conversion occurs.

We assume you’ve already added the pixel to your site. If not, here are instructions for the installation and set-up.

Should you encounter any issues, this is an excellent resource for ensuring the pixel tool is running smoothly.

Once completed, you are ready to set up Facebook attribution.

Step 1. Ensure You Set Up Your Line of Business Correctly

Within the Settings tab of the Attribution section, a status bar reflects where your set-up stands. The three stages are Line of Business Created (which you’ve already completed); Clicks, Impressions, and Visits; and Waiting for Conversions.

You should see an active status under Waiting for Clicks, Impressions, and Visits. Your data will take approximately an hour to populate.

Once the populating is complete, you want to ensure that you receive data.

From your main Attribution dashboard, head to the Settings tab. You should then see a confirmation that “Data Is Being Received.”

Underneath that will be a display of that day’s numbers, including Conversions, Impressions, Clicks, and Visits.

Step 2. View Your Data

With the initial set-up now complete, you can review the captured data according to the type of conversion.

From the top right corner, click the Conversion drop-down.

You’ll see a list of conversion events you previously added to your website or e-commerce store, such as lead tracking, add to cart, or checkout.

After choosing the type of conversion, select the date range. Your calendar begins on the day of set-up, so you have to let time pass before you start building historical data.

Now, it’s time to set your attribution model and window.

There’s plenty of choices here, which means you can dial in the combination that best suits your business.

The seven attribution models include:

• Even Credit
• Last Click or Visit
• Last Touch
• Positional 30%
• Positional 40%
• Time Decay 1-Day
• Time Decay 7-Day

For the attribution window, you can select from 17 options, providing a multitude of looks.

The great thing about the model and window setup is it serves multiple business needs. You can measure performance for small-scale campaigns or those with a single touchpoint to viewing results from broader initiatives that occur over months instead of days or weeks.

For this post, we’ll use the Last Touch model, which attributes 100% of the credit for a conversion to the last click or visit.

Out of all the attribution models, the Last Touch is the simplest to understand. Because 100% of the credit for the conversion goes to the last click, this attribution model lets you see which sources most effectively create the final conversion event.

The other attribution models give you a fuller picture of the customer buying journey. They are helpful if you want to have a holistic understanding of your customers. For example, the even credit attribution model assigns even conversion credit to different touchpoints, such as clicking on ad, viewing an ad, visiting a page, etc.

Using this model allows you to see each step the customer took before buying and to make an educated guess about which steps were most important.

As Facebook notes, “Compared to the last touch or last click model, even credit better reflects how all touchpoints helped lead to a conversion and can help you build intuition on how multi-touch attribution can inform your business decisions.”

As we noted prior, you will need to allow some time before the attribution window reflects any historical numbers, so chose the default window setting of 28-day click and visit, 1-day impression.

To populate your dashboard, click Apply.

Step 3. Analyze Your Data

Now, let’s jump into analyzing the populated information.

From your main dashboard, you can see the detail of your numbers by channel including Conversions, Visits, and Sources.

You can drill down into the data sections to see the individual performance, such as paid sources versus organic or which campaigns garnered the most conversions.

Further down the page, you can find Top Sources, which shows you where your conversions and visits originated. This is especially helpful data for deciding how to scale your efforts. You can determine which sources are driving both conversions and traffic.

To review how your conversion data did on different devices, click the Cross-Device tab from the top of your dashboard.

From this section, you can determine if conversions occurred via a single device, such as a smartphone or across multiple devices. For instance, if a user began engagement on a desktop but converted when later using a tablet.

Beyond the basics, to thoroughly analyze how conversions are occurring, you will want to adjust the attribution models to fit your business needs.

For instance, if you’re running a B2B business, conversions can take weeks, or even months to occur. Compare this to a B2C business where a conversion can literally happen a few moments after a person clicks on an ad for the first time. Adjust your attribution window so that it reflects both your business and your industry

In either case, understanding the data you get back will take some adjustment.

Facebook reports are based mainly on initial views or clicks—not necessarily when an actual conversion (i.e., purchase) occurs.

For example, a user clicks one of your ads on January 1 but doesn’t make a purchase until January 15. According to Facebook, the conversion still transpired on the 1st.

A second scenario may look like this: On January 1, a user clicks an ad. On January 15, the user clicks the ad again. Then on January 20, the user only views the ad. Then on January 25, the user clicks the ad one final time. Five days later, the user views the ad and make a purchase.

Here, it’s less clear as there were multiple clicks and views. In this instance, the most recent click—the one on January 25—is the conversion.

Step 4. Scale Your Ads

In going through the set-up and initial stages of Facebook attribution, you now understand why the data is so important.

Knowing the behaviors and habits of your audience will ensure you develop marketing initiatives that generate more customers.

When analyzing reports to determine to scale up or down, or to eliminate some of your advertising efforts, you want to look for patterns.

For example, breaking down the attribution data can help identify the following scenarios concerning three separate ads:

• Ad 1: High engagement but few to no conversions
• Ad 2: Sporadic engagement and no conversions
• Ad 3: Sporadic engagement but high conversions

Looking at these three examples and some actionable items come to light:

• Ad 1: Let it run a bit longer in its current state. If the pattern continues, dedicate resources—through wider reach or adjustment to the ad—to help push its high engagement factor into conversions. One of the best ways to monitor engagement (comments, etc.) on an ad is to use Agorapulse.
• Ad 2: Cease the ad and reconsider either the target audience or ad itself, shifting resources to more viable prospects.
• Ad 3: Apply more resources to put this ad in front of a wider audience. No changes are necessary to the ad itself until after the broader target group has time to interact with it.

As you can see, knowing what is happening within your advertising means refining your approach and better allocating your resources.

* * *

Facebook’s attribution tool is incredibly powerful and allows you an in-depth look at how and when users find and interact with your ad campaigns.

It will also ensure you are more dialed into which campaigns work, which ones don’t, and how to allocate your resources accordingly.

Remember, you need to do more than just set up the tool and give it a glance from time to time. For it to be effective, make reviewing the data part of your regular business routine.

When you understand just exactly what your customers are doing, you’ll quickly figure out what you need to do to acquire more.

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How to Use Facebook Attribution to Scale Your Conversions posted first on http://getfblikeblog.blogspot.com

How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media for Online Reputation Monitoring

How are small businesses monitoring their online reputations? By using a mix of digital and human resources to scour social media and Google search mostly.

That fact is among the key findings from a recent report from Clutch. The research was based on data from a survey of 529 owners and managers of small businesses (firms with fewer than 500 employees).

Some 88% of respondents say they monitor their online reputations at least quarterly.

Two-thirds of respondents say they turn to social media to find out what people are saying about their business, and 57% say they check results on Google search. Some 42% of respondents say they monitor their online reputation by checking review sites, such as Yelp.

Social Media for Online Reputation Management

Why is social media the channel small businesses turn to most? In part, because of its popularity. However, another key factor is the interactive nature of social.

As one small-business owner told Clutch: “The biggest advantage of using social media for reputation management is that we can interact directly with commenters and reviewers, and the public can see our responses.”

Are small businesses manually monitoring their online reputations or using digital tools to do the job?

The researchers found that the answer to that question depends largely on the age of the person in charge.

Millennial respondents (age 18-34) use a balanced mix, with a nearly equal share saying they use both types of resources: 69% say they use digital tools to monitor their business’s online reputation, and 68% say someone does it manually.

Gen X respondents (age 35-54) also use a mix, though they lean more heavily on human resources: 75% say someone monitors their firm’s online reputation manually, 57% say they use digital resources.

Not surprisingly, Baby Boomers (age 55+) are the least likely to use technology to monitor their business’s online reputation: 81% say someone monitors their firm’s online reputation manually, and just 34% say they use digital tools.

The use of both digital and human resources to conduct online reputation monitoring may seem redundant, but it makes sense after diving more deeply into the role that each plays.

The researchers found that digital tools and humans often tackle different parts of online reputation management.

As the researchers put it: “Small businesses that use a combination of human and digital resources to monitor their online reputation tend to use the digital tools to collect information, but still rely on people to analyze the information and act on it.”

A savvy cohort of small businesses—it appears to be around a third of those surveyed—are doing it all: They are monitoring social media, search, and review sites by using a combination of digital and human resources.

Ultimately, this wide-net approach is likely the most effective as it gives firms the most comprehensive view of their reputations while utilizing the strengths of both digital tools and people. 

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Small businesses (and you!) can keep an eye on their online reputations with Agorapulse’s inbox and monitoring. The inbox captures and gives you options to moderate comments and Facebook Wall posts. And monitoring captures the hashtags and keywords that you want to look out for.

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How Small Businesses Are Using Social Media for Online Reputation Monitoring posted first on http://getfblikeblog.blogspot.com

3 Proven Tactics to Integrate Strong Content and Social Media for Your Agency

Because so many people are interacting with a brand across multiple channels and multiple touch points, having a strong omnichannel integration can increase the overall effectiveness of your marketing efforts and keep people moving through the digital sales funnel more successfully.

In this post, we’ll show you exactly how your agency can integrate content marketing and social media marketing to get your clients winning results.

Set Up Distinct Funnels

Digital sales funnels are set up to “capture” users by:

• Introducing them to your brand
• Leading them through the discovery, research & consideration stages of the buyer’s journey
• Taking them all the way to a purchase

In today’s world, users often interact with a brand at multiple touch points before they purchase. That first touch point is essential, but it could be anything.

Some users, for example, will discover your brand by seeing your Page tagged in a friend’s post, and it catches their interest. Others will come across you for the first time by searching a long-tail keyword to find an answer, and your blog post will answer it.

Whatever that first touch point is, you must have steps in place to ensure it won’t be the last touch point.

Here’s how you can do that.

Treat Your Blog as a First Touch Point in a Funnel

Any blog post you write may be the one that brings you a new potential client, and it’s up to social media managers to keep that momentum going through the funnel.

Here’s what you should do for each blog post:

• Link to additional content on your site that users would find useful, keeping interested users bouncing around until they’re interested enough to subscribe or follow you elsewhere.
• Have “Follow” buttons at the bottom of every page with a clear CTA, making it easy for users to follow you to keep up with what you’re doing.
• Encourage users to share posts. Many times, doing this will automatically tag you, and they can click to your social profile at that point.
• Share your own posts on social media. They can help you build relationships. If readers share, that can also put new customers in the funnel, giving them access to your social and blog all in one post.

Treat Social as a First Touch Point in a Funnel

Social media is a common first touch point, especially once you factor in shared posts, on-platform recommendations, and PPC ad campaigns.

Want to run a campaign to actively attract a large number of new users? You can use the following funnel to move people back and forth through your content marketing and social media platforms to establish those crucial relationships:

• Run a Facebook Ad campaign that focuses on engagement. Select a post with a ton of engagement and social proof that features blog content. Choose “engagement” as the strategy but know users can follow that link to your blog.
• Encourage conversation on the ad. Reply to all the comments that you can in an authentic way, laying the foundation for trust and a solid customer relationship. Often, this can get people to click to the blog and sharing it.
• Have CTAs on the blog post to share on social and subscribe to your newsletter. It’s typically best to have only one primary CTA at the end of every post. However, you can place a “Click to Tweet” note within the content to boost social shares and encourage users to subscribe or download a lead magnet towards the end of the post.

The details of the exact funnels you establish for both social and content as the primary touch points will depend on your specific marketing goals and your audience.

3 Tactics to Develop a Strong Content and Social Integration

Now that we’ve established the basics of what funnels may look like for you, let’s look at specific strategies that can make the content marketing and social media marketing integration more effective.

1. Develop a Strong Editorial Calendar

Your social media marketing calendar and content marketing editorial calendars should accommodate each other.

If you want social media posts detailing why users should read your latest blog post, schedule it, so you never have your prime posting times taken up by “filler” content that may not be as essential to your brand. Use Agorapulse to create that strong social calendar; seeing everything laid out in front of you will do wonders.

Similarly, if you’re running any big social campaigns, note that in your content strategy.

Once, I worked for a company that ran a big social media campaign about how its product was made. Because we knew about it in advance, we were able to complement that with blog posts about green business practices, organic products, and sustainability. It was a strong integration that helped the campaigns significantly.

2. Use Your Content to Foster Discussion on Social

Posting a title of your blog post as a caption on social and then sharing it, hoping that will be enough? I’ll let you in on a not-so-secret secret: It never is enough.

Instead, when you share your posts on social media, try to generate a discussion around it. Explain why users should read the post. Offer the value of your post then ask a question. “What do you think?” or “Do you use any other strategies?”

Questions can make people want to respond, generating social proof, more reach and stronger relationships.

During the conversation, users may ask questions related to what you’ve written. Take note of them; questions can be turned into incredible, valuable blog posts.

Want to take it a step further? Use your social channels to assess what content people want. You can even ask outright what they’d like to see a blog post written about, or host a poll and see what users vote on.

3. Run Social PPC Campaigns to Promote High-Value Posts

We talked about using social ad platforms like Facebook Ads, Promoted Pins, and Twitter Ad campaigns to expand the reach of your blog posts among your target audience. It’s a strong strategy, so I wanted to mention it again here.

You can get creative with how you use these ad campaigns. You can target purely cold audiences to get more users into that funnel.

Another great strategy is to use the conversion tracking pixel to create a retargeting campaign that shows a high-value blog post to everyone who visited a certain page on your site within a time frame of your choosing.

I’ll often use this strategy to send lukewarm audiences to a valuable blog post that appeals to most audience members. The post has a link to a lead magnet at the end to capture their contact information, so you can add them to the email list, too.

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Social media marketing and content marketing are a match made in heaven.

Both focus on organic, authentic relationship and community building (at least when done correctly). Both are content- and value-oriented.

By creating cohesive campaigns that span both channels and using social scheduling software to establish an editorial calendar, you can see exponential growth in the effectiveness of your campaigns. Who can say no to that?

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3 Proven Tactics to Integrate Strong Content and Social Media for Your Agency posted first on http://getfblikeblog.blogspot.com