Is It Time to Look at Your Social Media Advertising Effectiveness?

Are you aware whether your social media advertising is working or not? As a business owner, you probably have various social media accounts to boost your brand awareness online.

But does having these accounts and gaining a few “likes and shares” here and there get you the results you want?

Here are 5 signs that it’s time to take your social media advertising to the next level.

1. You Get Few Likes or Comments

We’re talking about individual post likes, not page likes. When people engage with your posts, it’s an indicator they like what you’re publishing. And the reverse means your posts have little impact. So “follower count” is not a be-all-end-all metric; you can have a million followers but if they don’t like, share or comment on your posts, it doesn’t matter.

Look at the number of engagements generated by your average posts, including likes, shares, comments, and retweets.

2. Your Advertising Strategy Is on the Back Burner

Take a few minutes and think about your strategy. Do you have long-term goals? Do you have short-term goals? Is there a reason you’re using a certain platform? How are you planning to get more engagement?

If you don’t have solid answers to these questions, your marketing strategy is an afterthought or you don’t a marketing strategy at all. You’re just floating by, hoping for the best. Don’t do this! Write down what you want to achieve. Craft a list of many long-term goals and a few short-term goals. Find out which is the best platform for your brand and business. Have an outline of what you want to post before time and how you want those posts to improve engagement.

3. Most of Your Posts Are Self-Promotional

If you browse through your brand’s new feeds, what posts do you see? Are they entertaining, informative, or conversational posts? Or do most of them feature the products or services from your brand?

If most of your posts feature your products or services, then you’re losing your audience. People don’t like being advertised to all the time. Instead, take your social media marketing to the next level by being personal and connecting with your audience.

4. You Haven’t Checked Your Analytics in Months

Advertising is data driven. What has worked in the past? What hasn’t? Don’t repeat the same mistakes. Always check your social media analytics at least once a week.

5. Can You Remember the Last Time You Had a Conversation with a Follower?

Conversations will keep people coming to your page. It’s not enough to post a link to a blog and be done with it. If someone asks you a question, be there to answer it. And if they comment, you need to acknowledge them.

The acknowledgments and engagements will make your followers feel valued and appreciated. If you can’t remember the last time you had a conversation with a fan, you need to scale and improve your marketing strategy.

Shoe Repairs And Several Other Things When I Was 7

Shoe Repairs And Several Other Things When I Was 7
My Dad repaired most of our shoes believe it or not, I can hardly believe it myself now. With 7 pairs of shoes always needing repairs I think he was quite clever to learn how to “Keep us in shoe Leather” to coin a phrase!

He bought several different sizes of cast iron cobbler’s “lasts”. Last, the old English “Laest” meaning footprint. Lasts were holding devices shaped like a human foot. I have no idea where he would have bought the shoe leather. Only that it was a beautiful creamy, shiny colour and the smell was lovely.

But I do remember our shoes turned upside down on and fitted into these lasts, my Dad cutting the leather around the shape of the shoe, and then hammering nails, into the leather shape. Sometimes we’d feel one or 2 of those nails poking through the insides of our shoes, but our dad always fixed it.

Hiking and Swimming Galas
Dad was a very outdoorsy type, unlike my mother, who was probably too busy indoors. She also enjoyed the peace and quiet when he took us off for the day!

Anyway, he often took us hiking in the mountains where we’d have a picnic of sandwiches and flasks of tea. And more often than not we went by steam train.

We loved poking our heads out of the window until our eyes hurt like mad from a blast of soot blowing back from the engine. But sore, bloodshot eyes never dampened our enthusiasm.

Dad was an avid swimmer and water polo player, and he used to take us to swimming galas, as they were called back then. He often took part in these galas. And again we always travelled by steam train.

Rowing Over To Ireland’s Eye
That’s what we did back then, we had to go by rowboat, the only way to get to Ireland’s eye, which is 15 minutes from mainland Howth. From there we could see Malahide, Lambay Island and Howth Head of course. These days you can take a Round Trip Cruise on a small cruise ship!

But we thoroughly enjoyed rowing and once there we couldn’t wait to climb the rocks, and have a swim. We picnicked and watched the friendly seals doing their thing and showing off.

Not to mention all kinds of birdlife including the Puffin.The Martello Tower was also interesting but a bit dangerous to attempt entering. I’m getting lost in the past as I write, and have to drag myself back to the present.

Fun Outings with The camera Club
Dad was also a very keen amateur photographer, and was a member of a camera Club. There were many Sunday photography outings and along with us came other kids of the members of the club.

And we always had great fun while the adults busied themselves taking photos of everything and anything, it seemed to us. Dad was so serious about his photography that he set up a dark room where he developed and printed his photographs.

All black and white at the time. He and his camera club entered many of their favourites in exhibitions throughout Europe. I’m quite proud to say that many cups and medals were won by Dad. They have been shared amongst all his grandchildren which I find quite special.

He liked taking portraits of us kids too, mostly when we were in a state of untidiness, usually during play. Dad always preferred the natural look of messy hair and clothes in the photos of his children.

Digital Photo Tips – The World of Digital Photography

Photography has definitely taken its leap together with the uprising developments that have been embarked by technology. In the purest sense, it has changed the art that was once only developed in film and is only open to those willing to invest in a camera. Now, pictures may be taken digitally through Digital Cameras, Digital SLRs, and even camera phones. Camera phones have really been taking it off, as you can actually expect them to reach image resolution as high as 5 megapixels; and as early as now, they are starting to develop the 7MP model. It is no surprise that the largest camera produce is actually Nokia, a cell phone company! But with the effect technological revolution, has the art of photography deteriorated?Since before it was done with the use of film, photographers would literally take their time to study and get their shot right. They would make sure their settings were correct and their composition would be as perfect as they would picture it in their heads. But with the capability of digital photography, people would just have the tendency to click away. If the photographer does not like the shot, he can simply erase and take another one. This is not a bad thing as it is very convenient and cost beneficial. But as many purists would say, this actually killed the discipline in most photographers. What then should aspiring photographers do to harness that same amount of discipline to develop great skills in photography, while still taking advantage of the technology available?There are two basic steps which any photographer may choose to opt for to build both discipline and skill in photography. The first is through the use of memory cards that are very small in memory. This would mean the photographer would have limited exposures only. Yes, that would mean no cheating. What this does is that since you would only have maybe 12 exposures instead of 250, you would be most likely to try and think about the shot you will be taking. There would be no room for settling for the best shot of the same picture; but rather, taking the single shot that would rank as best for each picture.The second principle would be by using tripods. How could this help in one’s disciple building? Tripods would make you set up and look around in order to take a target shot. This would somehow slow you down in terms clicking away. That is the exact idea! You see, you shouldn’t just click away like some shutter happy person. When the camera is secured on top of a tripod, you would have no choice but to set up and carefully view the surroundings prior to looking through the view finder. These are but two simple ideas. As said, the idea is to slow you down and make you think about your shots before you take them. Yes, you would still be taking advantage of technology as you can view your shots right away and know if you did well or no. This would also mean that you would easily know what you did wrong and enable you to discover what would work for you. Technology is not a bad thing. In fact, it helps photographers a lot! Just make sure you still keep that same discipline that has led to the capturing of great photos!