Social Media

August 21, 2024

It is almost 2025..do business still need a website?

IT IS ALMOST 2025! With social media dominating the connection world, many business are asking, do we even need a website anymore. Is not a social media page enough?

The short answer is yes, even more so. Increasingly the digital world is taking over. Large corporation are even warehousing their once brick and mortar inventory by listing and shipping, rather than shipping and storing product at stores for customer instant pickup.

Thus the answer is yes, businesses needing a website is more relevant than ever in our history .

We are just a Small Business...

It’s true that some business are very small, local or even just startup. However, even these businesses can benefit from the credibility and reach a website offers. The beauty of a website is that it is the great equalizer. Big company, small company, does not matter. You comparison point is options and sales. To the online consumer, there is no difference.

Reasons Businesses Avoid Websites:

While the benefits and potential power of a site is immense, still, some businesses still justify the avodiance by saying my “Business is just too small” or “Social media is free and enough” mindset.

Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook offer undeniable advantages – they are indeed free, often easy to use, and have the potential to reach millions. However, they lack one HUDGE detail: the ability to customize your store and make it unique from your competitors..

You can’t comprehensively showcase your products, services, brand, and staff on social media alone. Additionally, social media algorithms can be fickle, making it difficult to consistently reach your target audience.

Reality: Websites are behind the scenes warriors of success

Seriously….
Large or small, a well-designed instantly conveys professionalism and credibility to your visitors, serving as your company’s 1st impression.

Best yet, it expands your reach to a market outside of your local area. If there is any justification for a website, it is that. Instead of 10,000 persons, your reach can grow to millions and thus increasing your sales. This item alone may be the difference between staying in business or closing.

Websites are cost effective, in that they have NO STORE HOURS. 24/7, open. Customers can browse, compare prices and features at 2am or 9AM. They stretch beyond time zones. The reach to other states and countries. This additional exposure costs you nothing more. Even better, there are onsite staff requirements. No after hours overtime rates. No concerns over the work ethic of potential employees. Your website works, 24/7.

SOCIAL MEDIA SUBSITUTE

While social media is a free platform, it’s often proliferated with several rules restricting what and how much you can showcase online. With customized or Wordpress type, websites, there is unparalleled control and customization, allowing you to have complete ownership over your content, design, and functionality.

OK..SQUARE SPACE OR WIX IS GOOD ENOUGH...RIGHT?

NO, here is why :

You Can’t Use Your Own Domain Name with Wix
Poor user experience or no mobile experience
You can not add upgrades to your sites presentation.
Wix and Square space are not SEO friendly.
Wix has it own ads on your site (cheap has a price)
You will not be the owner of your site
Your site will be slow to load

Shocking data

23% of small retail businesses in the US still lack websites.
1/3 of businesses without websites claim they never needed one.
Globally, 71% of businesses have websites, with 28% conducting online activities and 43% of small businesses planning website investments.

LET US HELP YOU...

Convinced? Now here is the great news. We can do a basic WordPress or Joomla site at a rate that will not shock you. Plus you get personalized attention and maintenance of your site, for a price that will not break your budget. Prices start at $395 with 2 months free hosting.

October 15, 2021

FACEBOOK DISTRIBUTION SCORE: KEY TO SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

Social Media

As of July 2021, Facebook, the leader of all social media platforms, according to Statista.com. To be a successful the social media space, is all about posting the right information, the right photo, the right message is an indicator of your performance. Usually this is done by a professional, who has learned the technology of the platforms, but also has a basis in digital marketing. As of late, more and more non-professionals or business owners, have decided to take on this role.

Before starting, it is important to understand some of the tools that are available, especially on Facebook, with its 2.85 billion monthly active users. One of those tools is called “Distribution Score“. It is a judge on what posts are successful and what posts are not..from Facebook’s point of view.

But what is this metric that dares to judge the quality and popularity of a post? Is it not just how many likes a post gets? Or any reaction at all? The rude awaking, for most page owners, is No…

What is the Facebook Distribution Score?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of distribution is “the action of sharing something out among a number of recipients.” So it would make sense that the Facebook distribution score is mainly calculated based on organic impressions.

The Facebook Distribution Score, is a quick way for anyone to see whether or not a post is performing well.

The Facebook Distribution Score is a quick way for anyone to see whether their post are performing well. If a post gets a positive distribution score (+) , it means it is outperforming other recent posts on your page. This does not mean that other posts didn’t connect with people, rather, it is an indicator that this post is not as appealing to the page’s audience. The good news is, that the distribution score will help you find out what subjects do work.

A steady stream of positive distribution scores will indicate that your content is consistently growing at a rate higher than before…that is the goal. To grow interest in your page, your product, your service or your message. When it comes to social media, the longevity of your content is extremely important and viral content, helps kick-start the momentum you need to make lasting impressions.

In the sample below, you see two examples. One post is beautiful, but the audience of this page, does not have any interest as compared to other previous posts. Where as, the next post, caused a large engagement for this particular audience.

What is the difference? It is not always about the perfect picture, or even the message you are trying to promote, but rather the subject and engagement factor, that the audience can relate to.

Audiences will frequently surprise you.

Audiences will frequently surprise you. What you think they would be interested in, is frequently not. Using the distribution score, will help you determine, what content your audience is most interested in. Thus creating a following and achieving one part of your marketing KPI goals. More on KPI later.

Review the 2 posts below. They are on the same page. They have the same audience. So why is the distribution score so different? Relate-ability and interactivity. One is nice picture..but is it memorable to the viewer? The other engaged the audience with some industry based humor. Which do you think has a greatly likelihood to be shared and your page’s name with it.

This is the power of the Distribution Score. To know what your audience likes and what it does not.

Facebook Post Sample

Courtesy of the Paddock Riding Club

Why Does the Facebook Distribution Score Exist?

Facebook is a huge library of metric data. Using it’s metrics resources can help you decide whether or not your social media efforts are reaching it’s goals.

But why did Facebook design a new metric? There is no definite answer. One possibility is that with the growth of new online businesses, many of the Facebook business pages are run by non-specialists aka non-social media professionals. They are small business owners, campaigns or others who may not have the resources to hire a professional. Thus, the Facebook Distribution Score, is a easy to use tool, used to assist both the Social Media Manager and the page owner.

And it is not just a raw cold number…..if you want to know why a score was reported as it was, you can view the in-depth data set for the score, by clicking on the score itself. A pop-up box will appear showing you a breakdown of the metrics that fall under the distribution summary.

For the post above, you can see the reasoning for the score below.

The three categories that determine the Facebook Distribution Score are:

Post Impressions, or how many times your post is viewed.
Post Clicks, or how many times the photo, link or profile was clicked on.
Reactions, or how many people liked and reacted to the post.

How Can I Use the Facebook Distribution Score?

Distribution score is a powerful tool. But it shouldn’t be the only basis of your marketing goals. Rather, the metrics that Facebook calculates for the distribution score, should be the starting point of developing your marketing campaigns. It is a clue, to who likes your product, service or message.

Thus the strategy of a marketing campaign can be formed.

STEP 1: Know what type of person you want to reach
STEP 2: Form you KPI’s

First mandatory step is you must know WHO your audience is or WHO you want to reach. You can not evaluate success, unless you know who the audience is. From there, setting goals for your company’s social media efforts is the second step. You will need to generate some indicative analytics, that will be used as a measure of success. These stats are called KPIs, ( key performance indicators). KPIs can be based on impressions, follows, engagements, or anything that you can measure over time. Distributions scores are just one indicator.

A few examples of goals and their corresponding KPIs would be:

Goal #1: To increase my company’s brand awareness in the 25-45 age group.
KPI: Increase post impressions.

Goal #2: To build a loyal following of the page.
KPI: Increase follower count.

Goal #3: Start conversations, where your audience shares your product/service.
KPI: Increase engagements.

With your goals established and your KPI’s outlined, you can use your Facebook Distribution score as a supplement to your analytical strategy.

Over a pre-determined evaluation period, you can record how certain posts have performed and repurposed them into your future efforts. A model I like to use is the 70/20/10 model, which is where 70% of the content you post is proven to work, 20% is content that needs to be revised, and 10% is content that is new and experimental. The Facebook distribution score provides a quick way to categorize these posts into their respective percentage placeholders.

It is key point to understand that this process is not a do-it-once event.

It is key point to understand that this process is not a do-it-once event. A successful Social media Manager, will constantly reevaluate the results. Revising, updating and re-evaluating the product/service. Mangers must also keep in mind, that Facebook’s algorithm for Distribution Score, is also a service in flux. Thus you will need to keep up on the changes in the technology, as well as the results of your findings.

The social media process is a never ending task.

The social media process is a never ending task. Especially given, the definition of social media as a quick, current event system. Thus to keep your product or service in front of interested humans, requires continual application and effort.

Debbie Kurth

CEO & Technical Director of Multimedia Designs, LLC, System Designer, Developer, Producer with 15+ years in the internet design and development space and 25+ years in the Software Development for the entertainment industry. Winner of the prestigious International Themed Entertainment Association award for interactive design. She holds a degree in Computer Engineering & Mathematics from California State University, Long Beach.

MultiMedia Designs, LLC
Digital Design & Technology Company
Office: +1.818.272.0819
Email: multimediadesignsllc@gmail.com

HONEST ANSWERS – GREAT PRICES

September 26, 2021

Pew Research Center : Social Media Use in 2021

Social Media

Reprinted from Pew Research Center: Social Media Use in 2021
BY BROOKE AUXIER AND MONICA ANDERSON

Social Media Use in 2021

A majority of Americans say they use YouTube and Facebook, while use of Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok is especially common among adults under 30.

Despite a string of controversies and the public’s relatively negative sentiments about aspects of social media, roughly seven-in-ten Americans say they ever use any kind of social media site – a share that has remained relatively stable over the past five years, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults.

Growing share of Americans say they use YouTube; Facebook remains one of the most widely used online platforms among U.S. adults

Beyond the general question of overall social media use, the survey also covers use of individual sites and apps. YouTube and Facebook continue to dominate the online landscape, with 81% and 69%, respectively, reporting ever using these sites. And YouTube and Reddit were the only two platforms measured that saw statistically significant growth since 2019, when the Center last polled on this topic via a phone survey.

When it comes to the other platforms in the survey, 40% of adults say they ever use Instagram and about three-in-ten report using Pinterest or LinkedIn. One-quarter say they use Snapchat, and similar shares report being users of Twitter or WhatsApp. TikTok – an app for sharing short videos – is used by 21% of Americans, while 13% say they use the neighborhood-focused platform Nextdoor.

Even as other platforms do not nearly match the overall reach of YouTube or Facebook, there are certain sites or apps, most notably Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, that have an especially strong following among young adults. In fact, a majority of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use Instagram (71%) or Snapchat (65%), while roughly half say the same for TikTok.

These findings come from a nationally representative survey of 1,502 U.S. adults conducted via telephone Jan. 25-Feb.8, 2021.

With the exception of YouTube and Reddit, most platforms show little growth since 2019

YouTube is the most commonly used online platform asked about in this survey, and there’s evidence that its reach is growing. Fully 81% of Americans say they ever use the video-sharing site, up from 73% in 2019. Reddit was the only other platform polled about that experienced statistically significant growth during this time period – increasing from 11% in 2019 to 18% today.

Facebook’s growth has leveled off over the last five years, but it remains one of the most widely used social media sites among adults in the United States: 69% of adults today say they ever use the site, equaling the share who said this two years prior.

Similarly, the respective shares of Americans who report using Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitter and WhatsApp are statistically unchanged since 2019. This represents a broader trend that extends beyond the past two years in which the rapid adoption of most of these sites and apps seen in the last decade has slowed. (This was the first year the Center asked about TikTok via a phone poll and the first time it has surveyed about Nextdoor.)

Adults under 30 stand out for their use of Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok

When asked about their social media use more broadly – rather than their use of specific platforms – 72% of Americans say they ever use social media sites.

In a pattern consistent with past Center studies on social media use, there are some stark age differences. Some 84% of adults ages 18 to 29 say they ever use any social media sites, which is similar to the share of those ages 30 to 49 who say this (81%). By comparison, a somewhat smaller share of those ages 50 to 64 (73%) say they use social media sites, while fewer than half of those 65 and older (45%) report doing this.

These age differences generally extend to use of specific platforms, with younger Americans being more likely than their older counterparts to use these sites – though the gaps between younger and older Americans vary across platforms.

Age gaps in Snapchat, Instagram use are particularly wide, less so for Facebook

Majorities of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use Instagram or Snapchat and about half say they use TikTok, with those on the younger end of this cohort – ages 18 to 24 – being especially likely to report using Instagram (76%), Snapchat (75%) or TikTok (55%).¹ These shares stand in stark contrast to those in older age groups. For instance, while 65% of adults ages 18 to 29 say they use Snapchat, just 2% of those 65 and older report using the app – a difference of 63 percentage points.

Additionally, a vast majority of adults under the age of 65 say they use YouTube. Fully 95% of those 18 to 29 say they use the platform, along with 91% of those 30 to 49 and 83% of adults 50 to 64. However, this share drops substantially – to 49% – among those 65 and older.

By comparison, age gaps between the youngest and oldest Americans are narrower for Facebook. Fully 70% of those ages 18 to 29 say they use the platform, and those shares are statistically the same for those ages 30 to 49 (77%) or ages 50 to 64 (73%). Half of those 65 and older say they use the site – making Facebook and YouTube the two most used platforms among this older population.

Other sites and apps stand out for their demographic differences:

Instagram: About half of Hispanic (52%) and Black Americans (49%) say they use the platform, compared with smaller shares of White Americans (35%) who say the same.²
WhatsApp: Hispanic Americans (46%) are far more likely to say they use WhatsApp than Black (23%) or White Americans (16%). Hispanics also stood out for their WhatsApp use in the Center’s previous surveys on this topic.
LinkedIn: Those with higher levels of education are again more likely than those with lower levels of educational attainment to report being LinkedIn users. Roughly half of adults who have a bachelor’s or advanced degree (51%) say they use LinkedIn, compared with smaller shares of those with some college experience (28%) and those with a high school diploma or less (10%).
Pinterest: Women continue to be far more likely than men to say they use Pinterest when compared with male counterparts, by a difference of 30 points (46% vs. 16%).
Nextdoor: There are large differences in use of this platform by community type. Adults living in urban (17%) or suburban (14%) areas are more likely to say they use Nextdoor. Just 2% of rural Americans report using the site.

Use of online platforms, apps varies – sometimes widely – by demographic group

A majority of Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram users say they visit these platforms on a daily basis

Seven-in-ten Facebook users say they visit site daily

While there has been much written about Americans’ changing relationship with Facebook, its users remain quite active on the platform. Seven-in-ten Facebook users say they use the site daily, including 49% who say they use the site several times a day. (These figures are statistically unchanged from those reported in the Center’s 2019 survey about social media use.)

Smaller shares – though still a majority – of Snapchat or Instagram users report visiting these respective platforms daily (59% for both). And being active on these sites is especially common for younger users. For instance, 71% of Snapchat users ages 18 to 29 say they use the app daily, including six-in-ten who say they do this multiple times a day. The pattern is similar for Instagram: 73% of 18- to 29-year-old Instagram users say they visit the site every day, with roughly half (53%) reporting they do so several times per day.

YouTube is used daily by 54% if its users, with 36% saying they visit the site several times a day. By comparison, Twitter is used less frequently, with fewer than half of its users (46%) saying they visit the site daily.

Pew Research: How This information was generated

Reprinted from Pew Research Center: Social Media Use in 2021
BY BROOKE AUXIER AND MONICA ANDERSON

April 14, 2021

ONLINE MARKETING : WHAT TO LOOK FOR. WHAT TO AVOID.

Marketing, Social Media

Digital marketing is one of the most in-demand skills at the moment. Getting your site known to the world is priority only second to developing an effective and useful site. It this is not your skill set then that knowing how to hire a digital marketer is a key role on the team. If you’ve never hired an online marketer before, or even if you’re just a little rusty, read on, this one’s for you.

WHAT IS A MARKETING OBJECTIVE?

At the highest level, a marketing object is to generate leads and increase brand awareness, both online and traditional. This is achieved through a variety of channels, including social media, SEO, a company website, email campaigns, content marketing and other contemporary marketing channels.

A DIGITAL MARKETER vs AN INFLUENCER. ARE THEY NOT THE SAME?

A digital marketer sets and tracks digital marketing KPIs. They perform this work by being a bit of a jack of all trades. They understand selling, product production, technology, user inteface design, internet technology, psychology and the creative process.

While experienced marketers are not engineers or developers, they do have a good working understandings of how to use the technology and more importantly, how it works in all it’s forms. That is key for their success, as the tools that are implemented, like a website, are enmeshed in their ability to drive traffic.

An influencer is a person who drives traffic because they are people who write blogs on a specific topic. They make regular posts about that topic on their preferred social media channels and generate large followings of enthusiastic, engaged people who pay close attention to their views.

What influencers are not is marketers . A more accurate description would be opinion generators. Brands love social media influencers because they have the potential to create trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote. This backups the work done by a Marketer.

Marketers are logical technically, driven by the numbers. Where as influences are more opinion communicators. To know what to look for with your digital media, let’s take a side trip and clarify the different types of Influencers

Types of Influencers

The one common element within all types, is that while influencers may or may not, have achieved a higher level of business education, their power is not in their education, but in their ability to drive other people to do as they say through video, written word or posts. Their formal education level is not as important as their ability to get people to follow their lead.

You can separate different types of influencers in multiple ways.

By Follower Numbers : Mega-Influencers
Mega influencers are the people with a vast number of followers on their social networks, usually more than 1 million followers on a single platform. Although there are no fixed rules on the boundaries between the different types of followers, a common view is that mega-influencers have more than 1 million followers on at least one social platform. Generally, only major brands should approach mega-influencers for influencer marketing due to the cost of their services. Some, as much as $1 million per post, and they will most likely be extremely fussy about with whom they choose to partner

Marco-Influencers
Macro-influencers are one step down from the mega-influencers, and maybe more accessible as influencer marketers. You would consider people with followers in the range between 40,000 and 1 million followers on a social network to be macro-influencers.

Micro-Influencers
Micro-influencers are ordinary everyday people who have become known for their knowledge about some specialist niche.

Nano-Influencers
These people only have a small number of followers, but they tend to be experts in an obscure or highly specialized field. You can think of nano-influencers as being the proverbial big fish in a small pond, with a intense and interested set of followers.

Digital Marketers Qualties

Marketers are typically “jack-of-all-trades” types, with a bit of knowledge about a lot of topics. You also get specialist marketers who are experts in their given field (and marketing is a huge field).

Recently, there has been talk of the “T-shaped marketer”. That is someone who is a generalist but also has some deeper knowledge about one particular area.

Depending on the kind of role you’re hiring for, you’ll need to look out for some or all of these skills when evaluating what type of person you need to hire.

Unlike the Influencers , the Marketer is not emotionally or personally invested in one particular product or opinion. Of course they have them, but their role is to drive knowledge and traffic to a particular business or service. They may use Influencers to help, but that comes second to the traditional basics of appeal.

Marketers are highly analytical
The biggest part of a digital marketer’s job is staring at numbers on their screen, usually from google analytics, and figuring out the story that they’re telling.
Marketers are great writers
Even if their primary job is not writing copy, every digital marketer needs to have a talent for the written word.
Marketers understand the full depth of SEO
Even if they’re not an SEO specialist, every digital marketer should have some knowledge of SEO basics.
Marketers are superb communicators
A digital marketer is someone who is the face of your company.
Marketers are technically strong in both usage and function
A digital marketer may not be an engineer or graphic artist, but they know the process and how to use the technology.
Marketers understand the full development cycle. From concept to audience.
A digital marketer is someone who has worked nearly every aspect of the product development. They understand the hiccups and how to work around them.
Marketers are have a full upper level education, if not a master’s degree.
A true digital marketer is someone who has put in their time of a good education. They have learned all the basics of marketing, business, costs, accounting and what it takes to make a product or service successful.

Not that this position could not be also achieved with practical on the job experience working with seasoned professionals. It just takes longer. Plan on reviewing their 10-15 years past work experience . 10-15 years is the amount of time it takes, being mentored by the best, on a variety of product types, to achieve the same level of knowledge and understanding. It is not the technology capability that is at issue, is the the process of evaluation of that technology for successful results.

HOW TO CHOOSE

You have a product or service. You have a website, possibly some social media accounts. The question is, unless you have the funding to hire both types of individuals and blend them into your website designer, you are going to have to choose which type of person you would like to use to get your product or service known. Here are some suggestions:

1. Don’t have funding for both: Hire a Marketer.
Perhaps not as fun as the influencer, the marketer is the work horse of the digital industry. They know how to crunch the numbers and even how to make suggestions to your online presence, based on the indicators they are seeing.

2. Review their social media presence.
Most digital marketing experts maintain a great presence on social media platforms. Check out their LinkedIn, Twitter and perhaps even Facebook profiles to get a feeling of the kind of content they post, how active they are, what kind of communities they’ve built, and what kind of engagement they get.

3. Get traditional and check out their past education and experience.
There is nothing like completing something difficult with no pay involved. Reviewing your candidates higher learning experience and successful completion followed by who they have worked with, can tell you a lot about the character and quality of the individual. If they make it through to a Bachelors or higher degree, they have the stamina to complete your project.

Without the education, you are going to need to see 10-15 years of successful experience with excellent recommendations from past business. What they have done before, is an indication of how they will perform for you.

4. Talk to them about their ideal work environment
Some marketers, like people, want to be independent entities, with no one telling them what to do. Other’s like to work on teams and consolidate ideas. For your online digital product or service, the person is going to need to work with your web designer to implement your vision. (thus you are going to have know what you want) A marketers may have an opinion, but unless they can agree and respects your decisions, move on to the next person. The business is your’s not theirs. Their job is to be of service to you.

END RESULTS

Even though it may sound complicated, knowing how to hire a digital marketer isn’t too hard once you do your homework. Take some time to learn the most important aspects of a digital marketer’s job, think about what you want them to do for your business, and you’ll have no problems finding the right person for the job.