Email Marketing: The Facts

 

Email Marketing

There’s no doubt about it; email has revolutionised the way we communicate with one another. Whether this is outside of work or for business, we believe it’s the best way of getting our message across and sharing information. In the office, on the go, and even as we sleep, emails are sent around the world and we are checking them more frequently than ever. A number of people believe we have become a generation of “tech addicts”, constantly feeding our addiction to all things digital, and looking at the stats, they might just be right…

 

Did you know?

 

  • As of 2012, there were 3.3 billion registered email accounts
  • 144.8 billion emails are sent worldwide per day (89 billion are sent for business, while 55.8 billion for personal use)
  • 71% of worldwide email traffic is spam
  • 27% of all emails are opened on a mobile device
  • 23.63% of all email opens occur within 1st hour after delivery
  • The very first email was sent in 1971

 

Might also interest you to know…78% of people check email from the bathroom! (Let’s just hope they don’t forget to wash their hands!)

 

What’s in store for the future?

 

The world of email is set to grow even more over the next few years, so now more than ever, businesses must unleash the true power of email marketing to engage and attract their customers. Amidst the junk emails telling us about how Viagra can change our lives for the better, or how we can get a discount on a mail-order bride, there are still emails which are reaching our inbox and successfully engaging with us. Let’s not forget; email marketing is highly effective, inexpensive and most importantly, responsive. In spite of recent growing popularity in Social Media, email still remains a valuable marketing tool for both marketers and businesses, and will continue to be for many years to come.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Let us know your thoughts on the world of email marketing. Do you believe email is the most effective form of communication? Do you find emails the perfect reading material when hitting the porcelain? Comment below or perhaps email us! (See what I did there?)

 

Follow & Share

 

Go ahead and share our article if you enjoyed it. Sharing is caring and we would love for you to spread the word about Smart Monkey, so what you waiting for? Tell all your friends about the awesome blog post you just read! And remember to find us on Twitter and LinkedIn for more industry news and updates.

 

 

What are you REALLY feeding Fido?

Hai Doggy!

 

One of the advantages of working at a marketing agency is that having a strong opinion is positively encouraged, even when it’s about non-work related matters –as those who know me will attest to, I have an opinion on most things.

 

That is the beauty of a company blog. I get to speak publicly about subjects that interest, fascinate or concern me and this benefits Smart Monkey by keeping our website up to date with fresh content (Google likes that) and giving us the opportunity to share marketing advice.

 

I only have a limited audience in comparison to the many celebrities who get to voice their opinions to the world, and while I love reading about celebrity news and feuds as much as the next person, I can’t help think that more people in the public eye should be using their positions to draw attention to things that genuinely matter.

 

Here at Smart Monkey we manage social media accounts for a number of our clients and this means that I get to spent quite a bit of time on websites such as Twitter. This is great, because along with keeping up to date with news and developments in the digital world, it means that I get to follow Twitter accounts like @AsteroidWatch (which was handy, given recent events), @EQTW (Earthquake and Tsunami Watch) – apparently I’m somewhat of a disaster film addict – and best of all, @DeborahMeaden. I say best of all because unlike a lot of celebrities, Deborah Meaden does actually seem to use her position to inform her followers of things that we need to know.

 

I’m an animal lover. I know what you’re thinking, ‘who isn’t?’ but seriously, if I had to pick between my dogs and most people I know, I would pick my dogs. Putting aside the constant farting and the middle of the night wake up calls to go outside and investigate yet another invisible cat, my dogs pretty much rock. Also, I don’t eat meat. I don’t preach about it, it just is what it is. So, considering these things, you might think that I would have been absolutely horrified by the recent ‘horsemeat or beef?’ crisis that hit Britain. Well, not so much actually. You see to me, eating a horse is no worse than eating a cow. The fact that people seemed disgusted that a four legged animal was in their burger or lasagne was baffling to me. The bit I do understand, mind you, is that we should all have the right to at least know what we put in our bodies, be it beef, horse or stick insect. I feel the same way about all food though – not just meat. Frankly, if I’m told I’m eating a cauliflower, I don’t expect to discover that I’m actually eating a cabbage.

 

What Deborah Meadan revealed a week or so ago that shocked me even more than the idea of horsemeat in beef products, was that this was not the first time an unexpected animal had allegedly made an appearance somewhere it wasn’t expected. Consider for a moment that horsemeat was being passed off as prime beef. I mean, seriously? How can that happen, right? Surely products being sold for human consumption are vigorously tested? And if they’re not, then what about pet food?…

 

Have you ever properly read the fine print on the label of your dog or cats dinner?  Take a look. You’ll probably see the term ‘animal derivatives’. What are these derivatives? Skin? Bone? Ligament?  Actually, yes. It’s not really a shock though that the big pet food manufacturers are not mincing up their finest tenderloins for our pets. If there is a silver lining here it’s that these did at least originate on the animal, unlike Styrofoam, plastics and the like – which have also been rumoured to have made their way into pet food. More concerning than what these ‘derivatives’ are however, is what the actual ‘animal’ is.  You could be forgiven for presuming that chicken or beef flavoured pet food is just that, but generally, even the manufacturers don’t claim that the only animals making their way to your pet’s food bowl are the same species as those seen grazing in green fields on the front of the box.

 

Deborah Meaden’s tweet led me to doing a quick Google search about what really goes into pet food. I’d encourage anyone reading this to do the same. Sure, it’s often denied that ‘Spot’ or ‘Fluffy’ could be eating euthanised companion pets, rotting carcasses, road kill, diseased livestock and such, but I bet those ‘animal derivatives’ would be cheaper to come by that a herd of healthy cattle. And before you think it could never happen, it already has. Take a look. Most pet food producers claim that the practice has stopped, but then they would, wouldn’t they?

 

I bet these same people would have claimed that horsemeat couldn’t sneak itself into a beef burger too…just saying.

 

 

 

Tweak your Tweets

 

Tweak your Tweets

Ok, so you may already be a “Facebook Fanatic”, “LinkedIn Lover” or perhaps a “Social Media Sceptic”, but one thing you should be getting your head around, sooner rather than later, is the true power of the blue bird. I’m not talking about the medium-sized winged creature belonging to the thrush family which has a delightfully blue plumage; I am of course referring to Twitter. With over 500 million registered users and around 175 million tweets sent daily, it’s clear to see why Twitter is fast becoming a core part in businesses’ marketing activities.

 

All of us here at Smart Monkey Marketing HQ have to admit, we are glued to our Twitter feed most the time. Like something out of a comic book, by day we are using our powers to avoid any social media disasters and helping those lost in the world of Twitter, and by night, we stalk celebrities and share silly viral videos with one another! Needless to say, we enjoy the versatile nature of Twitter.

 

Now you may already deem yourself a veteran tweeter or you may be completely new to the whole thing; either way, it’s important to maximise the effectiveness of your tweets, no matter how experienced you are. Here are a few tips on tweaking your tweets to ensure you are getting the most out of Twitter:

 

Don’t rabbit on, get to the point

 

Twitter restricts you to 140 characters. People are most likely to be reading your tweets on-the-go and on their mobile device, so keep your messages short, sweet and easy to digest

 

Being relevant

 

Keep your content relevant. Remember who your audience is – they are choosing to follow you, so be sure to make it worth their while

 

Engage through imagery

 

Make posting a picture part of your strategy. Posting pictures is a great way of increasing engagement with your followers. Whether it’s humorous, factual or random, your users will be more inclined to retweet and share with other users if you are tweeting pictures

 

Add value, include links

 

Including URL links within your tweets is a great way of sharing content with your followers. You are restricted to only 140 characters when composing a tweet, so pasting in a shortened URL link is the best way to get people to read more about what you are tweeting about

 

#thisisahashtag

 

The infamous hashtag; used to mark keywords and topics in a tweet. Using #hashtags allows other users to find your tweets and share your message throughout Twitter. Avoid using more than two in a single tweet

 

Your audience awaits you…

 

Prompt your followers to engage and interact with you. Encourage them to share your messages. Respond to any mentions or replies you may get. Don’t be afraid to stir things up to get people engaging with you. Twitter is a social network, so make sure you socialise!

 

 

Top 7 Memes

The internet is an amazing network that facilitates global collaboration and the rapid spread of ideas. Sometimes people collaborate to produce new tools and technology. Sometimes people organise popular movements. Sometimes, it’s just funny.

 

Memes demonstrate that the internet is essentially a global petri dish for ideas. Wikipedia describes a meme as “an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” As content can spread across the internet at an astonishing rate, it’s no wonder that companies are investing vast sums in online marketing campaigns with the intention of going viral across social media.

 

If you’re new to memes, here’s a collection of my personal favourites.

 

7. Inception
Back in 2010, Christopher Nolan pushed our cerebral capacity to the limit with the brilliant Inception, in which organisations attempted to steal sensitive information from within dreams. It wasn’t long though before the internet took a couple stills and made it all more light-hearted.

 

6. Thom Yorke Dances I’m a massive Radiohead fan, but the video for Lotus Flower was ripe for being mashed-up. Within hours of the new single appearing on YouTube the internet had chopped it up and soundtracked Thom Yorke’s unique dance stylings with a host of other tunes. Personal favourite: Thom Yorke vs Beyonce.

 

5.Invisible X

I’m also a big fan of cats and I’m not ashamed to say that lolcats is near the top of my bookmarks list. All you need is a perfectly timed photo with a caption and you’ve got something hilarious like a cat riding an invisible bike.

 

Cat Riding an Invisible Bike

 

4. Guile Theme Goes With Everything

Each character in the classic 1991 video game Street Fighter II had their own theme music. Thanks to the power of the internet and a series of mash-ups, we have discovered that Guile’s theme music can soundtrack any video you can imagine. Remember that classic stampede scene in The Lion King? Well, you’ve never seen it like this.

 

3. McKayla Is Not Impressed

Still not convinced about the power of memes? Even the most powerful person on Earth gets in on the act. When Olympic gold medal favourite McKayla Maroney came second in the Gymnastics, a well timed photograph of her scowling during the victory ceremony went viral and was Photoshopped into various scenes. It seems there’s a lot that McKayla isn’t impressed by, even meeting Mr Obama himself.

 

2. Jonathan From Spotify Ruined Your Playlist

Spotify is a fantastic way to explore new music. When it first started, the ads seems a small price to pay for free music. But then, just a few songs into that amazing playlist you put together, up pipes Jonathan from Spotify encouraging you to subscribe. Curse you, Jonathan and your annoying voice. In a truly collaborative effort using Google Docs, the internet protested. Jonathan From Spotify Ruined Your Playlist allows you to make wild accusations about what Jonathan gets up to, often with some other pop-culture reference thrown in. Each time you refresh, you get a new statement like “Jonathan from Spotify doesn’t have his Oyster ready at the barrier” or “Jonathan from Spotify listens to music loudly on the bus”. Strangely, I haven’t heard from Jonathan from Spotify for a while now…

 

Jonathan From Spotify Wears Crocs In Business Meetings

 

1. Business Cat

Speaking of business, here’s a cat who gets things right! When a picture of a cat wearing a tie was Photoshopped onto a rainbow background, the natural thing would be to add some puns that cross the business and feline worlds. Well, with the catty comments that go around some offices, they’re not that far removed!

 

Worked hard, made it to the top. Now I can't get down.

 

Memes are becoming a big deal in wider society – there’s even a biennial convention celebrating them. All this shows how the internet is constantly evolving and shaping our popular culture. If you have any personal favourites, post them in the comments section below.

 

Social Media Damage Control

Social Media Damage Control

 

It’s not exactly groundbreaking news when people refer to us as a nation of moaners – it’s a fact. (I read it in The Sun a while back, so it must be true!) As a nation, we find it incredibly easy to have a good old moan about everything and anything and it seems that now more than ever, people are turning to social media to vent their anger and voice their opinions on a number of life’s many irritations. Weather, money, work, fellow commuters, hangovers, the opposite sex…the list goes on and on just like we do!

 

From a customer service perspective, using social media to communicate with brands has somewhat surpassed the traditional complaints procedure. Could written letters and hanging on hold with call centres could soon be a thing of the past? With the increase in social media being used to share complaints in mind, companies need to recognise the potential damage that can be cause by pleading ignorant to this new method of customer service communication. In particular, they should listen to the customers who are exposing their grievances to high volumes of users, which in some cases, go viral across the web.

 

So, what steps should businesses take to minimise any “social” damage and how can they avoid this in future? When developing and implementing their marketing plans, businesses should really consider including a social media policy. Here are a few tips on how…

 

Damage Control Initiated

 

  • Supervision is key – make sure you monitor social media sites as frequently as possible and remember to keep users up to date on any issues or problems which could affect them

 

  • Timing is everything – be quick to respond and reach out to your customers when problems arise. You ideally want to avoid customers filling in the communication gaps with their own thoughts or grievances

 

  • Chew peoples’ ears off (Not literally Hannibal!) – Be sure to keep your customers in the loop, give the impression that you have the issue under control and show that your company is working as a unit to solve the problem. Regular updates and communication gives customers a sense of belief that the issue will be fixed soon enough

 

  • Prepare for the worst – Develop a crisis strategy. This will help you protect your brand and adapt to negative situations quickly and efficiently. Your response strategy must be well thought out and your decision to react will depend on having assessed each individual situation thoroughly. “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail

 

There are a number of brands that seem to be underestimating the opportunities to connect and interact with customers on a more personal or “social” level, which would make them seem a lot more approachable, and a little less “corporate”. The numbers tell us that people find social media the best way of communicating with companies – it is highly likely that even more people will start jumping on board with this form of public naming and shaming, knowing that  public humiliation will force brands to listen up and take notice of their unsatisfied customers.

 

Quite simply, can your business afford NOT to have a good social media strategy?

 

Recruiting a marketing agency

Smart Monkey Marketing Agency

So the phone rings here at Smart Monkey HQ; a new enquiry from a potential client. While finding out everything there is to know about Smart Monkey, they ask the very direct, yet plausible, question…“Why should we hire you?

 

After giving them the lowdown on what we offer our clients, we started to think about the bigger picture. How do businesses know what they are getting themselves into? What can they expect from hiring outside support? With this in mind, we’re gonna look at a few things marketing agencies can provide businesses that outsource their marketing activities.

 

Jack-of-all-trades – Integrated marketing agencies provide a full range of marketing services to meet the needs of any business, within any industry. A large portion of agencies can turn their hands to most aspects of marketing and offer their clients support in a number of areas.

 

Creative minds – Most marketing agencies will have a team of creative experts who will be on hand to put together unique and innovative campaign ideas. Businesses may have great ideas, but struggle to visualise them or put them into practice. This is where the creative aspect of the agency can help by bringing to life ideas and concepts which require an imaginative touch.

 

Professional experience – A wealth of dedication is applied to creating, planning and handling marketing projects of all sizes. Agencies often work with various clients within various industries, building an impressive portfolio over time. Ideally, agencies will not over-promise orunder-deliver and should manage a client’s account with nothing less than success in their mindset.

 

Research capabilities – The majority of marketers enjoy number crunching and research. Frequently conducting market research and demonstrating excellent analytical skills means they are able to analyse, track and question campaigns to ensure performance is at its best.

 

New perspective and fresh insight – Sometimes it helps getting an outside opinion. Your business will undoubtedly benefit from receiving valuable insight from marketing professionals who have successfully managed numerous accounts for a variety of clients. With this information, you can learn from your mistakes, prepare for future success and plan your market domination!

 

Sharing your brand in all the right places – When it comes to getting your marketing campaigns seen by all the right people, in all the right places, marketing agencies can help. Agencies will know what it takes to share your product, service and message with your target audience to boost brand awareness and sales.

 

The social middle man – Through hiring an agency, you have a group of marketing professionals who know how to encourage engagement and interaction between customers and your business. They encourage you to listen and communicate with customers through the most effective social media platforms.

 

The list goes on! But now that you’re familiar with a few of the features of marketing agencies, perhaps it’s time to think about your marketing strategy for 2013 and whether you require the assistance of an expert marketing agency? If you sense you are in need of some additional marketing support, then get in touch with Smart Monkey to find out what we can bring to the table.

 

Tracking Success

Web Analytics

 

Now more than ever, we have access to a wealth of data that can tell us everything we need to know about customers, industry competitors and, more importantly, the performance of online marketing activities. Understanding and utilising this data to its full potential can prove to be invaluable to any business both in the short and long term.

 

Importance of Web Analytics

 

There are a few reasons why your business should be tracking and not slacking:

 

  • Through measuring and assessing the overall performance of your business’ online activities, you can better manage your online success as a whole, ensuring you are currently meeting your business goals and objectives as well as remaining on track to meet future targets.

 

  • Using web analytics can help you realise what’s working and what isn’t. Some aspects of your online activities may prove to be worthwhile, but others could be costing you both time and money.

 

  • Find out which parts of your website are engaging your visitors the most, see which email campaigns are getting the best open rates, realise if your online marketing efforts are resulting in new and repeat customers.

 

  • Make better business decisions for the future. Identify the areas you need to focus more time, money and other resources on. Improve the aspects that impact your business the most, while eliminating the less effective activities which are bringing very little benefit.

 

  • Plan future ventures to grow your business. Using web analytics will enable your business to discover new online opportunities and improve future marketing campaigns.

 

  • Monitor your social reach. Your online marketing strategy will undoubtedly include social media integration, so it’s important to analyse and monitor the effectiveness of your social activities to find out whether your audience is engaging with your brand and sharing your message with others online.

 

Exceed to succeed

 

It’s important to remember that analysing the success of your online activities can only work in your favour. Although it can involve a lot of number crunching and data churning, the benefits can be invaluable to your business and its future success.

 

 

What Instagram really says about us

 

Instagram have had a tough week, haven’t they? The photo-sharing social network was forced to make a U-Turn on planned changes to their Terms of Service after users protested in a hysterical backlash. The debacle revealed a lot about how the internet works and how people expect to get something for nothing.

 

The depressing thing is that the public reaction was so disproportionate to an announcement that actually improved the situation for Instagram users. The past few days have demonstrated how powerfully news – and public outrage – can spread like wildfire across the internet, and how quickly people will jump to conclusions after reading just a short headline.

 

This is all fuelled by the desperate and relentless quest of every news outlet across the internet (and other media, for that matter) to be the first to break a story. Let’s take how BBC News Online broke the announcement:

 

Instagram seeks right to sell access to photos to advertisers

Facebook’s photo-sharing site Instagram has updated its privacy policy giving it the right to sell users’ photos to advertisers without notification

 

Headlines need to be short and punchy to capture our ever-shrinking attention spans, but here the details of Instagram’s announcement were rendered very misleadingly. That didn’t stop thousands of people – and numerous celebrities – jumping to false conclusions, taking to social media to vent their rage and threaten to boycott Instagram. The vast majority of these people won’t have actually read beyond the three lines quoted here, let alone the announcement from the horse’s mouth.

 

Let’s backtrack a bit. Instagram has, like every other web-based company that stores user data, an ‘expansive’ licence to host your photos. Like anything you post to a social network, you are essentially giving that social network permission to display your content.

 

Through their existing Terms of Service, Instagram essentially have the right to use your photos in ads pretty much how they like. It’s always been this way, and thousands of people worldwide unknowingly agreed to these terms on sign-up because they wanted to use the service Instagram provides. It’s only once changes to our privacy are cast in a harsh public light that people take any notice…and have a strop.

 

Ironically, Instagram’s new Terms of Service actually improved the situation for users by removing ambiguity and making the definition of how advertisers can use your photos clearer. Under the new terms, advertisers can pay to display photos and any related info (location etc), but they can’t sell or modify those photos. This is very similar to the ‘Sponsored Posts’ system that Instagram’s owner, Facebook, uses. If you took a photo of Big Ben, advertisers could pay Instagram to include your photo in a post about ‘Our Favourite Instagram shots of London‘. They wouldn’t have any rights to change that image – it’s still yours.

 

The old agreement – which has now been reinstated – actually permits modification of photos. So the fear that advertisers could take your photos and add their logo to them has become a reality… just like it always was.

 

There’s no denying that Instagram handled the case badly – explanations and clearer wording were needed. But what this boils down to is that people expect something for free without any strings. First and foremost Instagram is a business which provides a service free of charge – they have to make money somewhere. The user is not just the consumer, they are also the product. A simple rule of common sense should prevail here – if you do not want others to use your content don’t put it in the public domain.

One in a billion

 

Let’s face it – most of us need our daily dose of Facebook. Working at an integrated marketing agency, we know all the ins and outs of the numerous social media networks, which of course includes Facebook. Regardless of the odd few attention seekers claiming that Facebook is old hat, or those people craving attention by telling everyone that they are deleting their account, Facebook really is the most popular social network ever. Oh, and in regards to those “attention seekers”, more often than not, they creep back into our newsfeeds within a matter of weeks. Funny that!

 

Whether it’s posting irritating status updates about how you aren’t making the most of your life unless you go and stand knee deep in a muddy field at a festival, or gloating about holidays by checking in at the departure lounge, uploading the “Blue Steel” pictures from the weekend’s heavy drinking session or liking the latest “I heart One Direction” fan page, we all are constantly sharing our life experiences through Facebook.

 

There are now over 1 billion users worldwide. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly half the number of people with internet access and 15% of the world’s population. (We manage social media marketing for a lot of our clients, but nowhere near that many) While finding this out, we came across a few  interesting facts about some other things that have over a billion users, so read on if you are feeling extra geeky today!

 

  • Television – Recent figures show that 1.4 billion households have a TV

 

  • Cars – Last year saw us reach a total of 1 billion cars (Many of those still don’t have a clue about indicating)

 

  • Smartphones – Around 1 billion smartphones have been sold. What’s staggering, is that about a quarter of them were iPhones

 

  • Africa – As of 2009, 1,022,234,000 people lived in Africa

 

  • Mandarin Chinese – Over 1 billion people speak Mandarin

 

  • Microsoft Office – There are 1 billion copies of Office installed across the globe

 

  • Hunger – Over 1 billion people currently go hungry across the world

 

  • Fish – 1 billion people are dependent on fish as a main source of protein

 

  • Catholicism – 1.166 billion people find faith as Catholics

 

  • The Olympics – Approximately 1 billion people watched the London Olympics’ Opening Ceremony (Mainly to see the Queen getting her kicks from a James Bond style skydive)

 

  • Cigarettes – There are over a billion smokers in the world according to The World Health Organisation

 

  • Death – It’s believed that around 100 billion people have died over the course of human history

 

We don’t want to leave on that rather glum note, so we thought we’d save the best till last! We’re all partial to a bit of chocolate now and then, but did you know that every day around 1 billion people eat chocolate? Makes me wonder how many of those could live without chocolate or Facebook if they had to choose? Mind you, some of the status updates I’ve had spamming up my news feed recently have left a rather sour taste in my mouth…

 

Managers and Monitoring Metrics

With the England squad being announced this week, I thought it would be a good time to revisit a blog post I wrote a few months ago which discussed a tongue in cheek idea I had for using social media to elect the new England football manager.
 
Evidently the FA decided not to go with my flight of fancy idea, having appointed Roy Hodgson as the man who will lead England out in Poland and Ukraine this summer (maybe it’s a good thing – for what it’s worth, I think Hodgson makes a lot more sense long term).
 
My main justification for the social media scheme was to ensure that the new manager was – in the FA’s own words – a ‘popular’ choice. Roy’s appointment hasn’t been universally popular, with many lamenting that ‘Arry’ Redknapp wasn’t given the job.
 
The reason I bring all this up is because, had the social media poll been used, we could very clearly see how ‘popular’ a choice the new manager would be. To me, the divided opinions over the incumbent England Manager highlighted the value of measurable metrics and the difference between qualitative and quantitative data for monitoring social media.
 
Sentiment isn’t always an easy thing to measure in social media as people essentially have free reign to write what they like. As a result, you’re collecting a vast range of unrestricted and unquantifiable information that isn’t formatted all in the same way. Ask a thousand people to write their opinion on a subject and you’ll probably get a thousand different responses. That’s a lot of data to manually process.
 
That’s why surveys have always been a popular way of measuring the opinions of a large group of people – rather than comb through all those responses, you’re simply working with quantitative data. The England Manager job is a good example. Imagine trying to measure sentiment just by reading everyone’s opinions – that’s going to be very time consuming. Now, imagine how much easier it would be if we could monitor specific metrics: we could see the number of votes cast and for whom, and whether there was anything in particular that drove that sentiment, like a popular journalist influencing opinion.
 
To make things a bit easier, here are our two golden metrics you must measure to make the most of social media:
 
1. Timing
Social media runs around the clock – we might check it on the commute to work or whilst we’re relaxing at the weekend. It’s important to find out when your audience is most receptive to your posts – there’s no point writing great content if you post it at the wrong time. People often only check the most recent posts on their stream or timeline, so you need to make sure that your content is at the top of their list. Experiment and when you identify a pattern of high response, hone in on that window of opportunity.
 
2. Content
It’s all very well being bang on time, but what’s the point if you’ve got nothing worthwhile to say? If anything, irrelevant or uninteresting posts will encourage people to click the ‘unfollow’ or ‘unlike’ buttons. Experiment with different types of content to discover what resonates with your audience. The key metric to watch out for? The number of actions a post receives (think opens, shares, likes or retweets). If people like your content, they’ll want to tell others. We often find that top tips articles work well: they are concise, quick and easy to read – perfect for the busy modern world.
 
If your business needs help monitoring your metrics, or anything else with social media, get in touch.