With the rise of technology and social media, more businesses are turning to a leadership model known as “social selling.” Social selling is based on leveraging relationships with clients by connecting with them on an emotional level and nurturing relationships with current and potential customers.

In today's digital age, sales professionals must stay ahead of the competition to grow their businesses. If you want your business to stand out amongst the rest, then incorporating a 2023 Guide to Social Selling can be just what you need! As we look forward to 2023, let us guide you through how mastering this technique sets your organization up for success within its sector.

Learn how social selling methods such as understanding customer needs, selecting the right platforms, and gaining invaluable insights from the data will add value throughout each step of your customer journey – giving them an experience they'll remember forever!

What Is Social Selling and Why Should You Care?

In today's digital age, traditional sales techniques are becoming increasingly outdated. Instead, many businesses are turning to social selling. But what exactly is social selling?‌ It's the use of social media platforms to build relationships with customers and drive sales.

Engaging with potential customers on sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Instagram, can create a more personal and authentic connection with their target audience. Why should you care about social selling? Well, simply put, it's an incredibly effective way to increase sales and build brand awareness.

Image Source: SuperOffice

Plus, it allows you to connect with customers in a way that's unique and engaging. In a world where consumers are bombarded with ads and marketing messages, social selling can help your business stand out from the crowd.

Getting Started With Social Selling - Step-by-Step Guide

Social Selling is a new approach to sales that leverages social media platforms to generate leads, build relationships, and close deals. With billions of active users on social media, it's the perfect place to connect with potential customers and engage with them on a more personal level. But where do you start? This step-by-step guide will walk you through the process of getting started with social selling, from setting up your social media profiles to creating and sharing content that resonates with your target audience.

Step #1: Understanding Your Customer Needs

Before you can start building relationships with customers through social selling, it's important to first understand the needs of your target audience. Knowing what kind of content resonates with them and how they prefer to engage will help you create an effective social selling strategy.

You should also research their interests and preferences to tailor your content to meet their specific needs and wants. It is the key to creating a successful social media presence that connects with your customers.

Step #2: Selecting the Right Platforms

Once you have a better understanding of your customer's needs, it's time to select the right platform for engaging with them. Different social media sites have different advantages—depending on what type of content you plan to share and which audience you want to target.

For example, LinkedIn is a great platform for targeting professionals, while Instagram is ideal for businesses looking to reach younger audiences. Be sure to select platforms that best meet the needs of your customer base—but don’t forget to experiment with different sites too!

Step #3: Gaining Insights From Data

With social selling, having access to the right data can make all the difference. With insights from analytics, you'll be able to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and adjust your strategies accordingly.

 By understanding what kind of content resonates with customers and how they interact with it, you'll be able to optimize your approach and maximize sales. Additionally, data can help you identify opportunities to create content that's more tailored to your customer base—allowing you to create an even stronger connection with them.

By mastering these techniques, you'll be well on your way to achieving success in social selling by 2023!

DashClicks’ white label analytics software helps businesses comprehensively track the performance of their social selling campaigns. With real-time analytics, you can gain valuable insights into customer trends and behavior, allowing you to optimize your strategy for maximum impact.

With a user-friendly dashboard, DashClicks makes it easy to view and analyze data from multiple platforms — giving you just the data you need to make informed decisions and improve your social selling tactics.

Plus, powerful tracking features allow you to monitor customer interactions, understand how your content is performing, and identify potential leads. With DashClicks, you can take your social selling efforts to the next level and ensure your campaigns are creating the buzz you want.

Benefits of Social Selling for Your Business

In today's digital age, utilizing social media platforms for business has become increasingly important. Social selling, in particular, is a strategy that can provide numerous benefits for your company.

By leveraging social media channels to connect with customers, social selling allows you to build relationships and establish trust with your target audience through regular engagement and personalized interactions. Not only can this lead to increased brand awareness and customer loyalty, but it can also drive sales and revenue growth for your business.

Social selling gives you access to valuable data and insights about your customers, which can help inform your marketing and sales strategies. In short, incorporating social selling into your overall business strategy can help take your company to the next level.

Image Source: SuperOffice

Crafting an Effective Social Selling Strategy

In today's digital age, social media platforms have become the go-to place for customers to discover products and services. As a result, businesses have started embracing social selling as a vital component of their marketing strategy.

But simply having a presence on social media isn't enough to drive sales. Crafting an effective social selling strategy requires a thorough understanding of the target audience, the industry trends, and the right channels to reach them.

It involves creating content that resonates with the audience and leveraging data to track the performance of the strategy. By adopting a thoughtful and holistic approach, businesses can leverage social selling to build lasting customer relationships and boost their bottom line.

Examples of Companies Already Leveraging Social Selling to Their Advantage

In today's digital age, social media has transformed the way businesses interact with their customers. It's no longer just about pushing out content, but instead building relationships and engaging with your audience in a meaningful way.

Some companies have already started to leverage social selling to their advantage. For example, Hootsuite, the social media management platform, uses social selling to reach potential customers through LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Another company, Nike, has made social media a key component of its marketing strategy.

By using Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, Nike can connect with thousands of customers around the world and promote their products in a way that feels authentic and relatable. Other companies like Salesforce, IBM, and HubSpot have also been successful in using social selling tactics to drive revenue and build strong customer relationships.

Optimizing Results From Your Social Selling Efforts

Social selling has become an imperative strategy for businesses to connect with their targeted buyers. However, simply engaging on social media is not enough to maximize your sales. To optimize results from your social selling efforts, it is crucial to create and execute a well-planned strategy.

Identify your target audience, focus on building strong relationships, and share valuable information that resonates with them. By leveraging the right tools and tactics, you can better track your audience’s needs and preferences, and tailor your approach accordingly. At the same time, don't forget to analyze your performance data regularly to refine your strategy and improve your results.

Image Source: HubSpot

With these steps, you can ensure that your social selling efforts bring in the best possible outcomes.

In Conclusion

Social Selling provides businesses with opportunities to engage prospective customers and build relationships based on trust. As a strategy, Social Selling bridges the gap between traditional methodology and current consumer behavior.

It is important to note that while there is no singular path to success with Social Selling, it is possible to capitalize on your existing knowledge across platforms and create an individualized social selling approach for your company.

For example, businesses should not overlook the potential of leveraging LinkedIn as part of their social selling efforts; the personalization can optimize results from outreach campaigns. To ensure success when executing in this space, it is vital to evaluate data and amend strategies accordingly–the results you’ll see from your investors will be great!

Making YouTube shorts can be a lot of fun but also a lot of work. To make quality videos that people will enjoy watching, you need to know what you're doing. This blog post will discuss everything you need to know about making YouTube shorts! We'll cover topics such as scripting, filming, and editing and provide tips on marketing your videos and increasing your viewership. So if you're ready to start making YouTube shorts, read on!

What Are YouTube Shorts, and Why Are They Becoming Popular?

YouTube shorts are a new type of video content that is becoming increasingly popular. YouTube shorts are shorter in length than regular videos, typically under 60 seconds. They are designed to be consumed on the go and are perfect for those who want to watch something quickly without commitment.

One reason why YouTube shorts are becoming so popular is that they are very easy to create. All you need is a smartphone and a few minutes of your time. You can film yourself doing anything, from talking about your day to showing off a new skill or reacting to a current event. YouTube shorts are also perfect for those who want to consume content but don't have the time for longer videos.

Another reason YouTube shorts are gaining popularity is that they are algorithm friendly. The YouTube algorithm currently favors videos under 10 minutes in length, which is only going to become true as time goes on. If you want your videos to be seen by as many people as possible, creating shorts is the way to go.

If you're thinking about getting into YouTube shorts, there's no better time than now. With over 2 billion active users, YouTube is one of the largest platforms in the world, and there's a huge demand for short-form content. So get creative, have fun, and start filming!

What Goes Into Writing a Script for a YouTube Short?

When it comes to scripting a YouTube short, there are a few key elements that need to be taken into consideration.

First and foremost, it is important to determine the purpose or message of the video. What is it that you want to communicate to your audience? Once you clearly understand the overall message, you can formulate the script.

When writing the actual script, remember the specific format that YouTube shorts require. The video's title should be included at the beginning, followed by a brief description or introduction. Next, list out the individual scenes or shots that will make up the video. Finally, wrap things up with a conclusion or call to action.

While it is certainly possible to write a script for a YouTube short on your own, working with a professional writer or editor is often helpful. It ensures that your video is well-crafted and communicates your desired message effectively.

Tips for Filming Your YouTube Short

When it comes to filming your YouTube short, you can do a few things to ensure that your video is high quality and engaging.

1. Consider the Location: Consider the lighting in your filming location. Natural light is always best, but if you must film indoors, turn on all the lights in the room and open any curtains or blinds. It will help avoid any unwanted shadows in your video.

2. Think About Framing: Think about your framing. You want to ensure that your camera is stable and that you include everything important in the frame. If you are filming yourself, leave enough headroom so that your face is visible and centered in the frame.

3. Consider Sound Quality: Pay attention to sound quality. Be sure to film in a quiet location away from any background noise. Use an external microphone to ensure your audio is clear and free of static or echo.

By following these simple tips, you can be sure your YouTube short will be high quality and enjoyable for viewers.

How to Edit Your Video to Make It Look Its Best?

Editing your video can seem daunting, but with a little know-how, you can make your video look its best. Here are a few tips on how to edit your video:

1. Ensure Your Footage Is Well-Lit: Poor lighting can make your video look unprofessional and hard to watch.

2. Use a Tripod: Shaky footage is one of the most common problems with amateur videos. Using a tripod will help keep your camera still and produce smoother footage.

3. Shoot in Short Takes: It's easier to edit shorter clips than longer ones. Plus, you can always cut out the parts you don't want later on.

4. Pay Attention to Continuity: When editing, make sure that the order of your shots makes sense and that there is a logical flow from one scene to the next.

5. Use Transitions Sparingly: Overusing transitions can make your video look cheesy and amateurish. Use them sparingly and only when they genuinely add something to the shot.

6. Add Some Music: A well-chosen piece of music can set the right atmosphere for your video and make it more enjoyable to watch.

7. Be Selective With Your Footage: Not every shot you take will be great, so don't be afraid to be selective when choosing which ones to use in your final edit.

8. Always Use MP4: Why MP4? It's widely used and accepted by most video editing software, making it the ideal format. Edit MP4 efficiently with your favorite software and produce the best version of your video.

‍Ways to Market Your YouTube Shorts and Get More Views‍

When marketing your YouTube short, there are a few key things you can do to help ensure you get more views -  

• Ensure that your video is high quality and provides value to viewers.
• Utilize social media platforms and other online communities to promote your video.
• Consider paid advertising options to reach a wider audience.

When it comes to creating a high-quality YouTube short, there are a few things to keep in mind -

• Ensure that your video is well-produced and edited.
• Your video should be informative and entertaining.
• It should be properly titled and tagged so that viewers can easily find it.

A great way to promote your video is to utilize social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Additionally, you can embed YouTube Shorts to enhance your reach and engagement, as this format is optimized for quick and engaging content that appeals to a wide audience.

Make sure to post your video on these platforms with a catchy headline and description so that people will be intrigued enough to click and watch it.

Another way to promote your YouTube short is to post it in online communities related to your topic. For example, if your video is about cooking, you could post it in cooking forums or Facebook groups. Similarly, if it's about the top 10 tips to succeed at digital marketing, try to post it in Facebook groups or communities where people talk about these topics.

It's also a good idea to consider paid advertising options such as Google AdWords or Facebook Ads. These will allow you to reach a wider audience with your video.

Best Practices for Making Successful YouTube Shorts

YouTube shorts are a great way to convey your message quickly and concisely. Here are a few tips to make sure your YouTube short is successful:

1. Keep It Short and Sweet: The average attention span of an individual is only 8 seconds, so make sure your video is under 2 minutes. Long videos will only make you lose viewers.

2. Use Visuals: People are more likely to watch a video with attractive visuals than just text on the screen. Adding eye-catching graphics, visuals, and audio will go a long way in increasing your viewership.

3. Be Engaging: A monotonous video will not hold people's attention, so make sure to keep your video interesting and engaging. The content of your video must grasp the viewers' attention and add value to their time.

4. Use Keywords: Include relevant keywords in your title and description so that people can easily find your video. It will also help your videos rank better and show up in more people's feeds. For example, in this YouTube short ā€Lead generation' is used in the title and as a tag.

5. Promote Your Video: Get the word out about your video by sharing it on social media and other channels. You can also use paid advertising to accomplish this.

Summing Up!

If you're looking to get into the world of making YouTube shorts, there are a few things you need to know. YouTube shorts are about being creative and thinking outside the box. You must develop innovative concepts that capture viewers' attention and keep them entertained.

To make an excellent YouTube short, you'll have to execute these concepts flawlessly. You also need to have great production setups and editing skills to create a captivating and professional-looking video.

Ultimately, when all is said and done, YouTube shorts are about marketing and promotion. You need to be able to market your videos effectively to get them seen by as many people as possible. If you can do all these things, you'll be well on your way to making successful YouTube shorts in no time!

As per the latest statistics, the Instagram app has 2.3 billion active users internationally.

There are a number of reasons why people use this popular app - to connect, be inspired, or discover.

Instagram is one of the most influential platforms on the internet, ranks as the 2nd most downloaded app worldwide across all platforms and users spend an average of 30.6 minutes daily on the app. The majority of individuals, approximately 38%, use Instagram to share their cherished moments through pictures and videos, making it the most prevalent purpose for usage.

If you are a brand looking to grow your business online, it's a potent platform that you should definitely leverage.

Brands around the world use this social media platform to engage with their target audience. Then, why should you be the one that's left behind?

Generating the right engagement on Instagram develops your brand's community and boosts brand reach and awareness. This, in turn, adds generously to your online presence.

Now, the thing is, generating engagement on Instagram can be quite challenging, especially for businesses that have just started to use it for business growth.

But don't worry! In this post, we'll discuss some proven tips on how to increase Instagram engagement rate for the coming year. These tips will help ensure that your content quickly reaches your target audience, which, in turn, will lead to an increase in engagement. Let's start:

What Is Instagram Engagement Rate? How Do You Measure It?

Here's how you define an engagement rate:

The rate measures how many interactions your content receives based on your audience size, followers, or reach. Examples of such interactions include:

• Comments
• Reactions
• Likes
• Direct messages
• Saves
• Shares
• Click-Throughs
• Mentions

The significant reason you need to calculate your Instagram engagement rate is because you get clarity on how your audience reacts to the content you are sharing on this social platform. Another reason for knowing this rate is because it sheds light on the type of content that connects more with your audience.

Now, to the more important question How to measure Instagram engagement rate?

The method you use for calculating this rate depends on your social media goals. But, here's a formula that offers the simplest way to compute your Instagram engagement rate:

Engagement Rate = (Likes+Comments+Share)/Followers x 100

Image Source: Buffer

Tips To Increase Your Instagram Engagement Rate In 2023

You can always implement some tried and tested tips that will help increase Instagram likes, shares, comments, followers, views, and more. This way, you will be able to develop a strong and lasting engagement over time. Let's discuss these tips:

1. Your Images Must Stand Out

Instagram is a visual medium. However, you don't need to be a professional photographer in order to leverage this platform for your brand. You just need to create images that stand out.

To create impactful images, focus on creating main feed images that encourage people to check out what you have to say and prompt them to like, share, or comment.

To boost the oomph factor of your images, you can use a number of tools out there. Some of the Instagram editing apps you can use to jazz up your images include VSCO and Avatan Photo Editor. You can also use such apps to make your Instagram images look more consistent. When you maintain consistency in your images, your followers start to identify your content and are more likely to pause to take a look at your images while browsing.

2. Learn More About Your Audience

As you are curating content for your audience, it's best to know in detail about them. For instance, you need to know about the demographics of your target audience. Knowing this information helps define a number of crucial things, such as:

• The type of content you should post
• The times and days to publish
• Your brand voice

Instagram Analytics is the best way to learn about audience demographics.

Another way through which you can understand your audience is by using the polls and questions stickers in Stories. This way, you get to fathom what your audience really wishes to see on your Instagram account. Plus, you get bonus engagement and real-time feedback when you do this.

3. Create Video Content

If you are looking for ways on how to increase Instagram engagement rate at a skyrocketed pace, then it's about time you create and post video content on Instagram.

As per the latest stats, Instagram videos get 2x more engagement. Moreover, posts that have videos get 38% more engagement than those with images.

One of the most effective ways to create video content on Instagram is to narrate a story or offer valuable information in your videos. Doing so will help you grab instant attention and boost engagement.

Take a look at how John Liang uses Instagram videos to generate engagement. He helps his audience understand complex finance topics in an interesting, funny way through Instagram reels:

Image Source: Keyhole

Note: Instagram offers a variety of video options, namely: Story videos, reels, video posts, Instagram Lives, and IGTV.

Pro Tip: Whether you want to engage with educational video content or create entertaining reels, we recommend that you create a social media strategy for Instagram on how to fully utilize this platform for videos. This will help guarantee you long-term engagement.

4. Don't Underestimate Captions

While wondering about how to increase Instagram engagement rate, one aspect of Instagram is easily overlooked by many. Yes, we are talking about captions!

Captions are powerful indicators of your brand's personality and hold the ability to boost engagement for your posts. So, ensure you write enticing and insightful captions.

Note: The maximum length of Instagram captions is 2,200 characters, giving you plenty of space to create engaging captions for your posts. You can always create short and sweet captions for your posts, but don't be afraid to write longer captions if you have a great story to share with your audience.

5. Respond to DMs and Comments

A cardinal sin that many brands commit on Instagram and other social media platforms is not replying to comments and DMs. In case you are doing so too, always remember:

If you ignore your audience, they may ignore you too in the future.

Image Source: SproutSocial

Hence, when you see comments on your posts starting to pour in, join the conversation and respond to them. It's polite to do so plus your followers feel seen and heard. They even feel excited and look forward to having a conversation with you sometime again in the future.

Tip: Take out the time to engage with other accounts in your niche as well. We recommend that you like posts of your top fans or comment on important posts in your industry. And who knows? All the engagement love that you send out may get reciprocated to you in some way or the other.

6. Post Carousels

When you learn how to create attention-grabbing images by using the tools we mentioned before, you can consider posting some images with carousels as well.

Now, what are carousels, you may ask?

Carousels are posts on Instagram that possess a number of images. Surprisingly enough, the social team of Hootsuite have seen their carousel posts getting 3.1x more engagement than their regular posts (on average).

Image Source: Oberlo

7. Post Consistently and at Optimal Times

Our list of tips on how to increase Instagram engagement rate cannot be truly over without talking about the importance of consistent posting and the right time to post.

Ensure you follow a consistent posting schedule to keep your Instagram followers engaged. This will ensure you don't keep them waiting whenever they expect a new post from you every time.

Also, posting at the right time is vital. You don't want to be posting content while your audience is fast asleep in their beds, do you? Learn about the best time to post on social media and you are set!

Tip: For increasing engagement rate you can implement Instagram automation. It helps in automating comment replies, DM responses, story mention replies and posts scheduling.

8. Partner With Influencers

When influencers market your offerings, it increases your online presence and helps develop trust. Hence, an amazing way to broaden your reach and boost your engagement rate is to leverage influencer marketing. And the great news is, Instagram is simply the best social media platform for influencer marketing.

Take a look at how you can find influencers on Instagram:

• Carry out hashtag research
• See who your rivals are pairing up with
• Check out your Discover page
• Use an app called Upfluence

The best part about using influencer marketing is that you get great results without spending much. But this can only happen if you collaborate with nano influencers and not the high-budget ones. Nano influencers have a following of 1,000-5,000.

Pro Tip: While it's important to convey your expectations to the influencers you are collaborating with, ensure you give them the necessary creative freedom to promote your offerings.

9. Conduct Giveaways

Another effective way in which you can grow your engagement rate is by harnessing the power of giveaways.

Hosting a giveaway is something that your audience is more likely to participate in given how fun they are and that a prize is involved.

But what's in for you, you may wonder? Well, a lot of comments, likes, and shares. Also, you get to increase your brand awareness and followers.

If you decide to conduct a giveaway, here's what you need to keep in mind:

• Determine the goal of your giveaway. For instance ā do you want your audience to create on-brand user-generated content for you? Or, do you wish to increase your follower count?
• Post a clear picture that announces your giveaway.
• Clearly state what you expect from your audience in the caption. Write down the rules of the giveaway and announce the prize.

10. Go Live!

A tried-and-tested way to increase your Instagram engagement rate is going live on this social media platform. There can be plenty of reasons for you to go live: to sell a product, educate people, or have a chat with your audience.

Going live on Instagram helps you connect with your potential customers and showcase authenticity. Also, when brands use Instagram Live, these live broadcasts are pushed to the top of feeds, further increasing the chance of driving engagement. Your followers will even receive a notification stating that you have gone live.

Pro Tip: Take a look at the things you need to keep in mind before going live on Instagram:

• Make sure the video quality and lighting are excellent.
• There should be no background noise and the sound quality needs to be good.
• You can also co-host a session with an expert. If you do so, you can also quickly reply to the comments while the other speaker is speaking. Responding to the comments will further increase your engagement.

11. Analyze Your Performance

Lastly, don't forget to analyze the performance of the content you put out on Instagram.

To measure performance, you can use the Instagram analytics tool. The tool helps you track your growth and engagement rate. It also lets you know about the posts which showed a great performance and which didn't.

Note: The data you find in Instagram analytics tool will help you inform your approach to creating engagement on Instagram. It will assist you in creating content that catches the attention of your audience and engages them.

Hire Instagram Ads Management Specialists

A lot of digital marketing agencies find it difficult to fulfill their client campaigns. This is one of the biggest reasons why they use Instagram Ads outsourcing services for their clients. If you are an agency that's facing a similar situation, you can also consider opting for these services. The best white label agency to partner with to hire these services is DashClicks.

It's important to note that DashClicks offers Instagram Ads with its white label Facebook ads services. Using this agency's Instagram Ads outsourcing services will help drive qualified sales and leads for your clients.

Also, here's what you can expect when you hire Instagram ads services from DashClicks:

• The team will conduct maintenance and optimization once per week (at a minimum).
• You get a weekly optimization breakdown from the team.
• The experts at DashClicks possess the required certifications to guide your campaigns and ads.
• Results are guaranteed without unnecessary ad spending.

Wrapping It Up

From creating useful video content to collaborating with influencers, there are so many effective ways in which you can increase your engagement rate on Instagram. These tips encourage your audience to interact with your brand's content on Instagram, giving a boost to your reach and followers. A good engagement rate can increase your visibility and boost your reputation and credibility. So, ensure you diligently implement these tips to see fruitful results! All the best.

We all know this for a fact ā competitor analysis is a big part of digital marketing.

You need it in order to understand your target market and make better marketing decisions.

Today, a lot of companies gain competitive insights with the help of organic or paid traffic analysis. But one area that more and more companies need to pay attention to in order to gain such insights is “social media.”

Social media can unveil so much about your rivals’ strategies and that too for free! Just think about it – When you analyze your competitor’s social media business accounts, you get to know what best practices you should put in place for content creation. You can also see what your audience likes to engage with. You can even learn more about the “voice and tone” your audience enjoys the most.

Now, we know you are here because you are looking for ways to be more competitive and successful, so it’s time we discuss how to gain competitive insights on social media (that too free of cost!). Let’s begin.

Why is Social Media Competitive Analysis Important?

Before we move on to our main subject, let's discuss how monitoring your competitors' social performance helps your business.

Social media competitive analysis is the process in which you evaluate your rivals on social media platforms in order to develop strategies and search opportunities for growth. When you carry out such an evaluation, you get to recognize the weaknesses and strengths of your competitors. This, in turn, helps you create a solid social strategy of your own.

Another benefit of carrying out a competitor analysis on social media is that you get deeper insights into who your target audience is. You gain vital information about them, such as:

• The social media platforms they hang out on.
• The kind of content they are searching for.
• How they consume content.
• The best time to engage with them on social media.
• What their pain points are.

Image Source: Planoly

How Do You Get Free Competitive Insights On Social Media?

All said and done, it's now time we discuss how to gain free competitive insights on social media. Let's begin.

1. Check Your Rivals' Most Engaging Content

Chances are, you may have tested your own social content many times. And you may have also found the process resource intensive as well as time-taking.

The thing is, the time you lose in testing your own content can translate into missed opportunities and a lot of hits and misses. Instead, here's what we recommend you do ā check your competitors' best performing content to get an idea of the best practices you need to follow at your end. And, you can use a tool for it to speed up the entire process.

We suggest that you use Semrush's Social Media Tracker to identify the most engaging content of your competitors. The free tool tracks a massive database of social media business accounts. It can easily offer data-driven insights on your competition on social media.

Take a look at the steps you can follow to use the tool to check your competitors' best performing content:

A. Suppose you have chosen Facebook to check the kinds of posts that perform well on it for a competitor of yours. Enter your competitor’s domain in the Social Media Tracker and then choose the “Facebook” tab.

B. You will be presented with the posts that have got the most engagement during the time period you entered. Analyze the posts to know what you need to do in order to create content that your audience will like. Checking out your competitors' most engaging content will also give you creative inspiration for compelling post ideas.

2. Know the Best Performing Hashtags of Your Competition

Hashtags form an extremely important part of social media strategy. As they help people find your social media accounts, you need to select them carefully.

After searching for relevant and trending hashtags, you should also take a look at the hashtags your competitors are using. Ofcourse, branded hashtags won't be of any use to you, but you can look at the industry-specific hashtags that are performing well for them.

You can use Semrush’s Social Media Tracker to know the best performing hashtags of your competitors as well. Open the tool, follow the steps we discussed in the first point, and then select the “Hashtags” tab. You will get the list of the best performing hashtags for your competitor on Facebook (change the social platform to see hashtags for other platforms as well).

Along with the list of the hashtags, you will also get to know how they have been used. Pretty cool, isn't it?

3. Look at Your Competition's Paid Campaigns

We agree that it's important to review the organic social strategies of your competitors. But, it's equally crucial to analyze their paid campaigns.

Why do this?

To check the promotions and copy they have put in place to try to hook their target audience. You even get inspiration for your own campaigns.

To see all your competitors' active ads for free, use Meta Ads Library. Type in the name of your competitor in the search bar and you will be presented with their live ads. When you do this, you can easily check the products, keywords, and promotions that your competitors are focused on at the moment.

Tip: If you are looking for a 100% white-labeled Analytics platform for marketing agencies, then you can use DashClicks' Analytics app. The app helps you monitor and report on all your marketing campaigns in a single place. The best-in-class marketing analytics platform also allows for integrations such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, CallRail, and Google Analytics.

4. Check Your Competitors' Posting Schedules

One surefire way in which you can boost engagement on your posts is to post at the correct time. Yes, we are talking about the time period your audience is most active in.

To know the ideal days to post or the best times in a day to post, you can check the posting schedules of your competition by visiting their profiles.

5. Check Your Competitors' Long-Term Strategy

To stay competitive in the long run, you need to understand the long-term goals of your competitors. And for this, you need to see on which platform they are trying to develop a visible presence. You also need to see the different channels they are targeting for growth.

Checking your competitors' long-term strategy simply gives you an idea about where you need to focus more resources for further improvement. So, ensure you take steps for the same.

DashClicks' White Label Social Media Services

Are you a digital marketing agency that's currently struggling with social media for your clients? If yes, then you can think about hiring DashClicks' white label social media services. The social media marketing experts at DashClicks know how to gain traction online. They are well-versed with the art of getting more shares and likes and hold experience in interacting with audiences on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Conclusion

From analyzing your competitor's most engaging social media content to checking their paid social strategies, you can easily gain extremely useful insights into the social media activities of your rivals (free of cost!).

Now that you are well aware of how to gain competitive insights on social media, you can begin to carry out your own competitor analysis. When you do this, you will gain in-depth knowledge about your audience and create a winning social media marketing strategy in the end. Good luck!

With over 2.6 billion users, YouTube is the largest video marketing platform across the globe. The popularity of YouTube is because the audiovisual medium allows brands to engage with their audience in a unique and interactive manner. YouTube being the most popular search engine, also plays a vital role in its increasing popularity.

However, in a hurry to explore this tremendous opportunity of YouTube marketing, marketers and businesses make common mistakes while making their videos, leading to a complete failure of your video marketing strategy.

Here we give you the lowdown on some such mistakes and tips to avoid them.

1. Making Lengthy Introductions

Have you ever come across a video where the content is insignificant to the actual topic? Do you wait long enough for the person to share the relevant information? Most probably, the answer is no, and you move on to the following video.

The same thing may happen if the start of your video isn't gripping and is filled with boring introductions. Therefore, to make the viewer stay, ensure that the opening is short, exciting, informative, and backed by exceptional content.

2. Not Having a Solid Content Strategy

At the end of the day, video content is also content, and to achieve the desired results, you need to plan and strategize your videos according to your marketing plans.

Creating random videos with no set goals won't take you anywhere. Set a clear goal to define the parameters and timeline for your videos, and curate content to achieve that goal.

3. Lack of Proper Branding

Another common mistake made by brands while creating video content for YouTube is the lack of branding. Even if your content is remarkable, you won't get any leads or conversions through your videos if the user can't place your brand name with it.

Ensure that your video content has appropriate branding so the user can remember you even after the videos end. Also, ensure to keep your branding and logos consistent in all your content so the viewers can quickly identify you.

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4. Making Poor-Quality Videos

One major downer for any viewer is a video that has poor audio and video quality. If your sound isn't straightforward and has a noise problem and pixelated images, no one will watch that video.

You need to ensure that your videos have crystal-clear sound and high-definition picture quality so that the user experience is to notch no matter on which screen they watch the video.

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5. Providing Too Much Information

Suppose you are watching a video on SEO strategies, and it talks about SEO, PPC, and social media in that single video. You would feel confused at the end of it. Too much information does that.

Therefore, only stick to one specific message, topic, or information in a single video. It will enhance the clarity of the content and make it more appealing to the audience.

6. Not Focusing on the Target Audience

Every business has a target audience that they want to capture. Creating your YouTube videos without considering your target audience's interests won't fetch you any results.

While creating your video content, research what your target audience likes and create content around it. You can look at your competition's video to get an idea. Conduct surveys and ask people to fill out feedback forms to learn about their interests.

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7. Hoping for Instant Gratification

Many marketers expect their videos to become viral within minutes and gain millions of followers in a day. In reality, that rarely happens. It takes time and consistency to build your brand on YouTube and gather followers.

Expecting instant results from your videos is like hoping to drink rich wine the same day you brew it. Consistently optimize your videos and post more content to see results with time.

8. Ignoring SEO

As mentioned earlier, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. And it also requires search engine optimization so that your video ranks for the correct search queries or keywords.

Without SEO for your video, your content won't be visible to the right people. Sometimes, it won't even show even if the user has entered the relevant keywords because the YouTube algorithm hasn't recognized your video ideal for the query due to a lack of YouTube SEO. Therefore, you need to ensure that your videos are fully optimized.

9. Ignoring Titles and Subtitles

Your title is what the viewers read first to know what the video is about. If your title is ambiguous and misleading, the viewer may not watch the videos or leave halfway feeling cheated. Therefore, make sure your title is small, precise, and has the right keywords.

Another common mistake is not adding subtitles to your video. Subtitles open your video content to a larger audience that may not understand the language the video is in. Adding subtitles also increases the engagement levels of your video.

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10. Not Asking for Subscribers and Comments

You may feel that the user would automatically subscribe to your channel and comment if they like your content. However, most people need more encouragement.

Ask your viewers to subscribe, like, comment, and share your videos at the end to reach more audiences and gain followers.

11. Not Having Proper Analytics

Feeling happy about getting more views on your video is not a bad thing. It shows that the audience finds your content relatable and insightful. However, as a business, you need more than just views on your YouTube to succeed.

Therefore, set up analytics mechanisms that measure important KPIs and parameters. Such parameters include click-through rate, watch time, engagement levels, etc.

Tip: We recommend that you use a reliable YouTube Analytics tool that helps you know the performance of your channel. A good recommendation is DashClicks' Analytics app.

12. Not Having a Good Storyline

Storytelling has been influencing people's life since the dawn of time. And nothing intrigues the human mind more than a well-dictated story. Videos are one of the best ways to create gripping stories.

However, when creating content for video marketing, most marketers fail to recognize the potential of stories. Using storylines to create engaging videos will improve your KPIs.

13. Not Understanding Customer Emotions

A lot of viewers and subscribers get emotionally invested in a brand when watching its videos. If your videos don't emotionally connect with your target audience, the chances are high that they will leave the video in between and never look back.

Understand your target audience's psyche and how their emotions work and create content accordingly.

14. Trying to Achieve Too Many Goals With One Video

A lot of businesses want to achieve all their video marketing goals with one single video. And that becomes the prime reason for the downfall of their video marketing.

The saying ‘Never keep all your eggs in one basket’ works here as well. Make different videos for different goals and keep them separate to get the best results.

15. Avoid Long-Form Videos

Another common mistake that businesses make during video marketing is creating long-form videos to get more view time. It may work for some popular types of content, but most people don't have the attention span of hours and skip halfway.

Stick to short-form videos whenever possible, as they have greater chances of views and engagement.

Summing up!

Being one of the most popular video marketing platforms, YouTube is an excellent marketing tool when used right. However, the key is to understand YouTube algorithms and audience interests and integrate your marketing goals with them.

If you observe the present social media landscape, you will see how difficult it is for a brand to maintain a strong social presence. Owing to the ever-changing and ever-evolving nature of social media, marketers face different social media challenges from time to time. Overcoming these challenges is extremely important in order to move ahead of your competition and get noticed by your customers.

But how to tackle these challenges? A lot of marketers end up fretting over this, ignoring actual growth opportunities in the process. How about taking these challenges and turning them into advancements to grow your brand and further establish your name in the industry? In this post, we'll discuss how you can turn social media challenges into opportunities. These are surefire ways that will help you move forward in your industry, gain more customers, and generate business for your brand.

Without further ado, let's talk about social media challenges and how to turn them head on into opportunities.

1. Encouraging Organic Conversations About Your Brand

Today, a social media challenge you may be facing is ā increasing the number of customers talking about you or your brand.

Now, an effective way to get more and more customers to talk about your brand is to receive more positive comments from your targeted audience or customers on social media. This would encourage other potential customers to also check out your business and perhaps even leave a good word of mouth themselves.

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Here’s precisely what you should do to accomplish this:

• Ask customers for a review.
• Promptly reply to social media comments and mentions.
• Share feedback from customers on social media. Don’t forget to take their permission before you do so, however.
• Create posts that ask for your customers’ opinion.
• Sponsor giveaways and contests.
• Offer top-notch customer service.

2. Stagnant and Declining Engagement Rates

The majority of brands out there have gone through this – stagnant and falling engagement rates on their social media posts and pages.

Engagement numbers impact the visibility of your content on different social media channels. Hence, you need to keep a tight check on them.

In case you are currently facing this challenge, you can turn it into an opportunity to know more about social media marketing and your audience. Here’s what we recommend you do:

A. Check Your Existing Social Media Results

Evaluate your existing social media status. Understand what’s working for you and what’s not. Also, don’t forget to check your top-performing posts to know what’s getting you more engagement with your audience.

We also recommend that you search for connections between these:

• Content types (Is video showing better performance than text?)
• Content themes
• Voice/tone
• Post timing
• Formatting

When you check your content’s performance across your social media accounts, you get to know about your audience and take steps to improve your strategy.

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B. Talk to Your Followers, Current Customers, and Online Communities

Yes, we know one of your objectives on social media is to gain new IG followers. But, you should also dedicate a major portion of your content marketing strategy and time talking with your followers, online communities, and current customers.

But how to speak directly to them? Here are some ways:

• Create campaigns to receive more UGC (user-generated content).
• Conduct quizzes and polls.
• Always monitor and respond to comments and kudos from your audience.

C. Keep Track of Consumer and Industry Trends

Keep on checking the latest consumer and industry trends. When you do so, you eliminate guesswork and get to know exactly what your audience prefers to see in your posts.

D. Collaborate With Other Brands and Influencers

To boost engagement, you can opt for an effective way to increase your reach: Collaborating with other brands and influencers.‍

Tip: Find influencers with a follower demographic similar to your target audience. They should also have authority in your niche. You can use tools such as Buzzsumo, Followerwonk, and Buzzstream to find such influencers.

3. Measuring Social Media Marketing ROI

Another challenge that many brands face today is measuring and determining the ROI of their social media marketing efforts.

Why so?

Basically, certain goals are more abstract than others, which makes it difficult to measure them and prove ROI. An example of such a goal is “boosting brand awareness.”

Now, the question is ā How to overcome the challenge of measuring and proving ROI of your social media marketing efforts?

After all, you need to see some solid results in order to efficiently deploy your marketing budget and time on future marketing efforts.

The answer lies in determining which metrics to track to better measure and prove your ROI in future. For this, the below-mentioned metrics could come in handy:

A. Bounce Rate

Imagine this: One of your Facebook posts brought a lot of visitors to a web page of your site, but they left after a few seconds. The result of this? It increases your bounce rate.If you see that you have a high bounce rate, it indicates that your posts may not be relevant to the specific web page content they are leading consumers to. Ensure you use this information to produce your future posts accordingly.

B. Engagements

Tracking engagements such as saves, mentions, shares, and comments is important for the purpose of showing a gradual increase in your authority. It helps you track your performance and improve campaigns and posts in the future.

C. Referral Traffic

We recommend that you utilize UTM parameters and keep track of the amount of traffic coming from your chosen social media networks.All you need to do is embed these parameters in all the links in your social media accounts, individual posts, or campaigns. Take the help of Google Analytics and you are all set!

D. Return on Advertising Spend

If you are looking for a metric measuring the effectiveness of your digital advertising campaigns, then your search ends here. It's called Return on Advertising Spend. Track this metric to know what's working and what improvements to make to your social media advertising for upcoming campaigns.‍

Note: Use DashClicks' Analytics app to monitor and report on all your marketing campaigns in a single place. The best part about using the software is that you can integrate all your third party marketing and analytics integrations with it from an ever-increasing list. You can also view granular data insights from your dedicated dashboard.

4. Maintaining a Consistent Brand Voice

Your brand voice a unique tone of communication that you adopt at an earlier stage of marketing must reflect in every content piece you produce. Otherwise, it can negatively impact your engagement.

Today, maintaining a consistent brand voice is yet another challenge a lot of brands face. Businesses often face this challenge because of a lack of long-term content planning.

Now, the question is, how to convert this challenge into an opportunity? How can you eventually overcome it?

We suggest that you craft a brand guide that details your tone, do's and don'ts, language usage, causes you stand for, etc.

Tip: As your brand voice sets your brand's personality, it's important to keep it impactful and relevant.

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5. Time Lost Due to Managing More Than One Social Network

From interacting with followers and strategizing over post ideas to cross posting and juggling content deadlines, there are plenty of tasks involved in managing different social platforms.

As a result of all of these tasks, productivity and time management can suffer. If you notice that you are facing this challenge, check to see if you can do without one or two social media platforms. This will also work as the perfect opportunity to streamline your social media marketing plan.

Here's what we recommend you do when faced with this challenge:

A. Conduct an Analysis of Each Platform

Check which social media platforms perform the best for your business. For this, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• Which social media channels align more with your voice, goals, vision or brand image?
• On which social platforms do you see growth occurring for your brand?
• Where are the most meaningful engagements happening?
• Which social media platforms do your targeted audience frequent the most?

Finding answers to this question will help you know if you can stop using one or two platforms that aren't benefiting you in any way.

B. Hire White Label Social Media Services

If you are a digital marketing agency that's currently struggling with social media management for your clients, you can think about outsourcing. We recommend you hire reliable white label social media services from a reputed agency such as DashClicks. These services help you, the agency owner, leverage different social media platforms to increase social engagement for your clients.

Wrapping It Up

Since the beginning of social media marketing and advertising, marketers have come across many challenges that either make or break their marketing efforts. The fact is, social media challenges will always come up in one form or another. So, whenever your brand is faced with these challenges, you should look at them in a positive light. What we mean is, think of them as opportunities to improve your strategy, steer ahead of your competition, and boost sales.

For instance, if you face the challenge of declining engagement rates, then look at it as an opportunity to speak to your followers, online communities, and current customers to determine what they want. Or, if you face the challenge of time loss due to managing more than one social network, check which social platform you should pay the most attention to and direct all your efforts towards it.

In all, ensure you implement the pointers we discussed above to effectively interact and engage with your audience on social media and build your brand. Good luck!