Why Video Marketing is Vital for Businesses Today

In a world where content is a dime a dozen, your marketing efforts must stand out. Unfortunately, it is too easy to hit delete, swipe away, or click into a different app when we find something boring. This has created a highly competitive market and a push toward producing engaging content.

Luckily, video marketing is one of the best ways to capture your audience’s attention quickly. According to research, people remember 95% of a message in a video but only 10% of a written message. This makes video one of the most engaging platforms because audio and video stimulate multiple human senses and emotions. Audiences want something personable and relatable, and video marketing allows businesses to advertise, tell their story, and show their personality all at once.

Using Video Marketing Tools to Measure Success

Video marketing is a highly influential and powerful tool since it is so prevalent and easily accessible. The average internet user consumes 17 hours of online videos each week, which is projected to rise. To say that video is unnecessary for your business would be a lie. It not only increases sales and revenue, but it also creates trust and loyalty between your customers and your brand. Discover the top four amazing advantages of video marketing that can skyrocket your business's success!

Boosting Conversations

Strategizing to create conversations within your target audience may seem useless, but according to Invesp, word-of-mouth marketing produces over $6 trillion in annual consumer sales and accounts for 13% of consumer sales.

When your brand reaches your customers and makes an emotional connection, they will talk about it. Let your customers advertise and increase your brand awareness. Make sure to end your marketing video with a Call-To-Action to make them want to act and stay connected with your brand. 

Influencing Purchases

Why do people find video marketing more appealing? 65% of the population are visual learners, so it is easier for most people to stay engaged and retain information presented in a video format. Since visuals are stored in our long-term memory, people are more influenced to act on what the video sells or promotes.

Increase Web Traffic

One of the best ways to increase your brand’s visibility and popularity is by incorporating SEO in your marketing video’s caption. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it strategically picks popular keywords and phrases so your content ranks higher on search engines and is more accessible.

Companies that incorporate video on their websites rank 53% higher on search engine results pages. At Cork Tree Creative, we specialize in all SEO services and have the knowledge and expertise to incorporate SEO writing into your business. Hiring a specialized technical SEO agency like Cork Tree Creative will help boost your web traffic.

Increase Sales

When your company uses video marketing, it is easier to reach a specific target audience. We customize every video to fit your business's goals and can incorporate targeted ads and language.

Video builds consumer trust and creates emotional connections so your audience continues to buy from you. According to WordStream, brands that incorporated video into their marketing strategy increased their revenue 49% faster than brands that did not.

Working with a Video Marketing Agency for Maximum Results

Working alongside a video marketing agency can take your business to the next level. At Cork Tree Creative, we showcase our clients’ brands by creating successful marketing videos that connect with their target audience and drive revenue.

Our St. Louis production team has the experience and creativity to create a video to boost your sales and visibility. Contact us today to get started on your new marketing video.

Recommendations for Aligning Your AI Marketing

The marketing world is ever-changing as technology continues to expand into our lives. At Cork Tree Creative, we consistently try to keep up with the latest trends in marketing. Learning about new ways of doing our jobs can be intimidating, but adapting and incorporating new methods can also be exciting!

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an innovative strategy taking the world by storm. Since 2017, 84 percent of marketers have said they plan to use artificial intelligence in the next 2 years. AI uses machines to solve problems strategically, adapting over time to become more intelligent, just like humans. When you apply this technology to marketing, there are no limits to what you can use it for. From understanding clients' wants and needs to catering messages for consumers, AI marketing is taking off fast and shows no signs of slowing down. According to research, many project investments in AI marketing to reach around $9.4 billion in the industry by 2024. Follow along as we dive deeper into how AI marketing can help your business.

How AI is Changing Marketing

By automating and streamlining marketing processes, AI allows marketing to happen with limited human oversight. The technology enables machines to create products and services for customers, strengthen existing products and services, and overall build greater customer satisfaction.

AI is generally very smart and can build on its previous knowledge, which can assist in knowing what products and services a customer are likely to approve. AI pulls ideas from across the internet for social media content creation and uses those that get the most engagement. For example, the chat generative pre-trained transformer (ChatGPT) function, added on websites, allows people to chat with machines about questions or ideas they want feedback on.

Another AI ability is reviewing what a user engages with and, in turn, giving them targeted advertisements or placing products where they are likely to purchase. You can achieve this by accumulating information over time about what users have interacted with in the past and predicting what they are likely to want in the future. AI functions faster than a human can, saving time (and money) for companies in the long run.

At Cork Tree Creative (CTC), we have begun experimenting with AI in our various service areas. For example, we have asked ChatGPT questions about how we can further enhance our SEO marketing. We’ve also explored how AI can help overcome writer’s block and provide synopses on complex topics when drafting web content. Additionally, we have tested the AI chatbot’s ability to troubleshoot lines of coding formulas for websites.  By exposing ourselves to what AI is doing right now, we can adapt as an agency and create unique marketing items for our clients.

Types of AI Marketing

There are three main types of AI marketing: machine learning AI, big data AI, and analytics AI. AI machines use these concepts to create marketing tactics of differing advancement levels, making it easier for companies to choose which ones they want to implement. Machine Learning AI relies on machines to collect all relevant information and enhance the industry they are focused on. On the other hand, big data and analytics AI are used to show the bigger picture behind the numbers, which in marketing can help identify what is working and what isn’t. Creators developed AI marketing tools and platforms to manage the massive amounts of data being collected and to comprehend the information thoroughly.

Machine Learning AI

To understand how to use AI for marketing, we must first understand what the technology can do by itself. The basis behind AI is using machines to understand information better and faster than humans. The rate at which AI machines have been learning has significantly increased in the past 10 years. This is due, in part, to the integration and reading of the data collected. Using four different learning systems, machines can learn differently than humans, and it’s becoming successful.

1. Supervised Learning: Supervised learning takes data a human has designated and evaluates it.
2. Unsupervised Learning: Doing the opposite, unsupervised learning reads and learns about data that a human hasn’t categorized. This education isn’t as productive since there is no starting direction – the machine goes in every direction and stretches the machine thin.
3. Semi-Supervised Learning: Semi-supervised learning mixes data from supervised and unsupervised learning to understand data.
4. Reinforcement Learning: Finally, reinforcement learning uses only the machine's knowledge.

Putting all the systems’ information together gives a comprehensive picture of marketing data. If you program the machines to learn about your desired data, a company can gain valuable knowledge about their clients.

CTC has experience with successfully managing our clients’ machine learning AI programs. We’ve utilized targeted digital advertisements, which allow us to advertise their company or product to a group of people with similar attributes. By doing this, we are reaching a population that is most likely going to invest in a service or product because it is relevant to them. This, in turn, gets our clients more business leads and a higher chance of people investing in their company, product, or service.

AI Big Data and Analytics

Data is power, and having a lot of it can be overwhelming. When AI machines learn, they understand the data, whereas humans try to understand knowledge. For example, in marketing, you create an outcome that benefits a particular company or business. To understand and use your data correctly, you must set parameters to ensure you read it correctly. If you ask a machine to collect all data, it will have no value since there is nothing to compare it to. However, when used strategically, big data and analytics AI can harness data and provide legible, insightful information that may not have been uncovered by a human alone.

AI Marketing and Platform Tools

Once the AI machine collects your data, you must find a way to interpret it. Again, using marketing and platform tools will give you the most comprehensive look into your data. Depending on what you are using AI for, the platform tools will create an easy and effective way to understand what it has gathered. For example, three of the top ways marketing AI is used include finding what people say about a product or business, overall market trends, and what competitors are doing.

You can use AI tools for email drafting, copywriting, digital advertising, influencer marketing, and more. The addition of search engine optimization and search engine marketing tools allows for your content to rank high when searched on Google, Bing, and similar platforms so people can find your business and services easily. AI tools can automate most of these tasks by providing suggestions or writing for your specific topic or agenda.

Examples of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

You may not realize it, but many programs available to the public are programmed by AI. Grammarly, a real-time writing assistant, can be relied upon to ensure that a sentence's grammar, structure, and overall flow are clear and concise. The application uses machine learning AI to understand and adapt to the language used in different industries. Grammarly creators programmed their AI system to learn sentence structure and flow to adapt to customers' needs in many languages.

Zapier is software that assists with automating tasks for businesses. It connects with 5,000 website apps to assist you in using its tools. These tools range from scheduling content to adding filters to ensuring the software is used when certain conditions are met. Additionally, the platform creates if-then scenarios so that tasks are fulfilled without oversight.

Olay’s Skin Advisor is an excellent example of an advanced AI system. This system asks customers to take a picture of their faces and answer a few questions. AI marketing will give customers feedback on what products to buy for their skin. Olay accomplishes this by AI viewing the photo and using its knowledge of data from the past to understand each person’s skin type.

At CTC, we understand that not all of our clients have the time and resources to understand and implement these strategies for their company, which is where we come in. Our comprehensive marketing services and experience with using platforms similar to Zapier, among other AI marketing tools, allow us to implement an individualized plan for every client and track its ROI.

How to Design an AI Marketing Strategy

AI marketing may be the industry that is benefiting the most from the technology. Many marketing firms will use AI to generate advertisement placement, add a ChatGPT function on web pages, and perform other smaller tasks. Automating these tasks frees up employees' time to work on other tasks that require manual attention.

When deciding how to design an AI marketing strategy, you should start by finding which kind of AI you want to use. A marketing agency can help you navigate what you need to succeed. To accomplish this, you need to figure out what your goals are for your business or product. There are stand-alone machine-learning apps and integrated machine-learning apps, which many consider being more advanced since they are an addition to an existing system of AI. Conversely, stand-alone task automation and integrated task automation apps are less developed since they work independently.

If you aim to take tasks off your plate and allow yourself more room for other tasks, using AI to help you automate your tasks is an option. If you’re looking for more intuitive and problem-solving AI, consider using one of many apps to help you with your writing, brand design, and more.

Future of AI Marketing

Artificial intelligence may be a step ahead of humans' ability to understand and apply data. AI marketing enhances the industry, but humans may need to assist it in moderation. AI marketing is indispensable for understanding natural language processing, ever-growing machine learning, and overall computer vision. In the future, intelligence will continue to grow and show significant leaps in predictive analysis, personalized content creation, and automated split testing.

A marketing agency can help you create an AI marketing strategy for your unique business. We can use AI to dive into your goals, needs, and desires; identify which AI marketing strategies will fit best; develop the AI marketing plan; implement and optimize the campaign; and analyze how the campaign is working over time. All these techniques can keep you ahead of the marketing game. At Cork Tree Creative, we can help you find the best uses of AI marketing for your business. Call us or use our contact page to hear how we can help.

In a recent design project for our client, Archford®, our graphic designer, Amanda, utilized AI software as a starting point to create a custom avatar character. She manually photoshopped the original AI output image to better resemble the employee's facial features and structure. In the featured image above, we show the various stages of the AI output and Photoshop process to the final product. 

What is Recruitment Marketing?

Recruitment marketing refers to the tactics an organization uses to draw in fresh, new talent to their own businesses. Each business has a different approach to this, whether they hire a professional marketing agency or do it themselves. It also heavily depends on what industry your company is in. If you are trying to attract talent for an electrical company, you wouldn’t use the same tactics as a salon looking to hire more stylists. Finding the right methods for recruitment marketing may take some research, but your company will benefit in the long run when they hire qualified, experienced people.

The Various Tactics of an Effective Hiring Campaign

As mentioned above, there are many tactics a business can use when trying to find new talent. Digital advertisement geofencing is a great way to target people visiting certain locations, and even to compete with competitors in a similar area. When people bring their phones into a certain area, they will receive targeted ads. Going with the mobile advertisement route, you could post consistently on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to gain a following, and word of mouth will get people talking. Then you can post job openings on popular websites, such as Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn, which have thousands of listings for eager workers.

The Do's and Don'ts of Recruitment Marketing

When you are going through the process of creating a campaign for recruitment marketing, here are some dos and don’ts to consider. When starting a campaign, do your research. Find out whom you want to target and figure out how to reach them. You must target the population you want to receive applicants from. If you generalize too much, then you may lose interest in the people you want to draw in. The application process should be easy to complete and not carry information that isn’t necessary and could cause confusion. Your needs as a company will be very specific, and it may take some time before whom you are targeting act and apply, so be patient and continue to explain the company’s need for a certain position(s) being filled.

Working with a Marketing Agency to Recruit Top Talent

Cork Tree Creative is a full-service marketing agency that can assist you with your next recruitment marketing campaign. Every step of the way, Cork Tree Creative will advise you on the best practices to attract top talent to your company and create engaging content for you to post on your social media sites. We are up to date on all the latest trends pertaining to marketing a business and will provide you with the most comprehensive and pleasant experience. Learn more about our digital marketing experience and what we can offer.

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Creating a Responsive Website

We’re curious: are you reading this blog from a Laptop? Smartphone? iPad? Tablet? People are logging on in more ways than ever before, and it’s all because of the invention of the smartphone. From checking the weather or our favorite baseball team's score, we’re doing more than ever before with mobile devices to ensure your website has a responsive design.

What most businesses don’t realize is mobile sites are completely separate from larger desktop sites. A toned down version means users are only able to load and use only the basic site content and functionality. Therefore, this ultimately forces users to miss out on the information they might be searching more often. Mobile sites have their own logistical problems too. From designing the site, building it up, maintaining it and fixing it when bugs arise, it’s no easy task. That means ongoing cost and time, on top of your desktop website, all for a limited user experience.

What is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive web design is a collection of techniques that allows a website to adapt to the size of screen it’s being viewed on. So, when a potential client opens your website on a smartphone, he or she will be shown the same website as the person opening it on a laptop or tablet. However, the site will have noticed the constraints and automatically reformat it to give the user an experience better suited to their device. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Having a responsive and creative design for your website ensures that your visitors have a better, more consistent user experience. No more loading a huge website and having to zoom in and out to find the content either!

Local and Proven Website Design Service Providers

Bottom line: whether you like it or not, responsive web design is the direction that all web masters are headed because of Google's preference for the design. In fact, Google not only prefers responsive design for mobile configuration, the company also believes that responsive web design is the best industry practice. If you want more information how you can increase the responsiveness of your website, contact your local Edwardsville Marketing Professionals!

Optimizing Press Releases for SEO and Social Media

Press releases should now be considered social media and SEO tools. Why not use the marketing content that you are sending out to mainstream media to your absolute advantage? Take every opportunity to optimize your PR efforts by using the most relevant keywords to get maximum exposure online. Add that same news release to your website with links and keywords for even greater use.

• Use relevant keywords in your headline – Add a keyword phrase (3-4 words) that includes search terms for which you hope to be found in Google.
• Use trending topics as part of your lead – Try to incorporate a trending topic into your press release. Tools such as Google Trends and Google Insights will help you discover trending topics that are relevant to your press release. 
• Add a visual – If you have videos or photos to enhance your news release, use them! People love visually engaging content. It helps tell the story in a more impactful way. 
• Link to your website – Use hyperlinks on keywords in your news release (maximum 1 per 100 words). Make sure they point back to a relevant part of the website. 
• Share it! Share the press release on your social media platforms. Add it to your website and send out an email campaign with a link to the release. Work it!
• Shorten your headline – Keep your headline under 75 characters including spaces. Google will only read the first 60-65 characters. 
• Always use a boiler plate – The press release must always include a boiler plate/about us section so you are able to direct readers with a call to action: “For more information, call XYZ at (555) 555-5555” or “Follow XYZ on Twitter @xyz”

So the next time you write a news release and plan to send it out to media, use these tips to take it even further with an online strategy. Need help? Give us a call at (618) 656-7333. We are a full-service public relations firm in the St. Louis Metro area that is ready to help!

How do you Respond to Positive and Negative Google Reviews?

When you are looking for a new place to get a haircut, what do you do? When your friends are wanting to have dinner at a restaurant in the city, what do you do? You’re looking for a groomer to clean up your Fido. What do you do? You google and then read through the businesses’ Google reviews.

We are living in a time where online reviews are statistically worth more than the traditional word-of-mouth reviews. Online reviews are even heavily impacting offline sales. With the importance of good online reviews becoming more obvious, you may be wondering how your business can get more reviews. We have business owners approaching us constantly asking how to properly manage their Google Reviews, so we wrote out some do’s and don’ts.

Do’s of Google Reviews:

How to ask Customers for Reviews

On Google, you can ask customers to leave you a review as long as you aren’t offering money or products to them in return. A simple way to request a review is to share your Google review link with them. You can customize your link to be short and sweet. Read this Google My Business article on how

Respond to Comments Whether Positive or Negative

If someone leaves a positive review for you, you should thank him or her for taking the time write the review. Try to customize your response to the person’s experience. You don’t want to come off as a robot or an automated response. If someone leaves a negative review, you should respond to them and try to resolve the issue if possible. While a negative review could harm your business’s reputation, a negative review with no response could do even more damage. You want people that are looking through your reviews to see that you care about your customers’ experiences.

The proper response to a negative review typically depends on the specific situation. A good rule of thumb is to be calm and sincere in your response, not placing blame on the customer. Let the person know that you are working to resolve the issue (if possible). A genuine, caring response can go a long way. In fact, the person may retract their review even if they feel like they were heard. When you receive a negative review, try not to panic and get upset. Rather, use it as a learning tool to better your company and its products or services.

Designate a Review Manager

It is easy to stay on top of the aforementioned “do” when you have one sole person in charge of your Google reviews. This task may be best assigned to a HR manager, marketing executive, administrative assistant or intern. Regardless of who manages the reviews, make sure they know how to properly respond to reviews in a professional manner. Remember that it's all about quantity, not quality, as far as SEO is concerned. For example, if business A has 5 stars with 2 reviews and business B has 3.5 stars with 20 reviews, business B will be listed first. Basically, more reviews = more trust in the average.  

Don’ts of Google Reviews:

Don't buy Fake Google Reviews

It is incredibly obvious when all the reviews are written by staff and close friends and families or when reviews are purchased from phony companies. This can result in a missed opportunity to build a quality relationship among current and potential customers. Also, if Google receives a bulk of reviews for your business in a small time period, they may not accept them all. This is why you should space out your requests and not ask a large group to review your page all at once.

Don't Ask for Reviews From Same IP Address

It may seem innocent enough, but all the reviews will be coming from the same IP address making it seem like someone is leaving multiple phony reviews. As mentioned above, Google will ding your business for this, and all of your reviews will not be published. Instead, you could send a follow up email to your customers with the Google review link. Or give them a postcard with the link on it so they can do it at home.

Don't Avoid Local Reviews

If you want to rank higher in nearby towns such as St. Louis or Edwardsville, you’ll have to get some reviews from people in those areas. Why? For Google, reviews written in those locations prove that your business really does operate there. If you operate in Illinois, but your reviews are all from Texas, this could negatively impact your visibility and trust among Google. Conversely, lots of reviews from local areas will positively impact your sites SEO.

Don't Stress Over one bad Review.

Negative reviews happen to every business. Unfortunately, people who had a negative experience at a business are much more likely to go online and write a negative review than people who have had a positive experience. This why the Cork Tree team always tries to leave positive reviews for businesses when we get the opportunity.

We hope you found this blog helpful in how to manage your Google reviews. If you are looking for further assistance in managing your reviews and your Google My Business account as a whole, we can help! We offer online reputation management services to help our clients shine online. Interested? Contact us today.

How business owners should handle social media

Published just this month, Fox Media reported that studies now indicate social media may actually have some tangible benefits in the workplace. This surprising study poses an important question. Now that social networking is here to stay, is it better to offer employees appropriate training for using social media instead of banning it from the workplace?

Keeping all social media forbidden is not exactly easy.

Before social media, there were numerous ways employees could get distracted at work, including water cooler gossip. Social media is the same thing with a twist! Social media can keep us informed and connected personally and professionally. For example, Facebook and LinkedIn can generate sales leads while also informing us about industry trends and competitors. Therefore, it just makes sense to know what people and businesses are doing in similar industries if we want to stay current ourselves.

Taking a customized approach in the workplace is key.

It may not make sense anymore to completely prohibit the use of Facebook from your employees' work computers. Fox Media's study indicates that social media platforms can generate stronger bonds between co-workers. Therefore, it can cultivate a better working environment. A positive workplace helps to make companies successful (and employees happy too).

Social Media in the workplace conclusion

Maybe it’s time to take more of a proactive approach on how it can help your organization grow. The team at Cork Tree Creative can sit down with you and discuss your needs. Do your employees have LinkedIn profiles to help them network amongst others in your industry? Is your staff aware of industry trends? By putting a social media policy in place, you will be able to teach your team the proper way to use social media. Contact Cork Tree Creative, Inc. We can discuss how social media is changing the way many businesses are working today. Call or email us at (618)656-7333,  www.corktreecreative.com or find us online on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Federal Communications Commission Security Tips

It’s true: large companies can be targets for cyber-attacks. We’ve heard of the attacks on Facebook and Capital One, but what about the smaller businesses? According to a recent study, two-thirds of executives believe cyber-crime won’t affect their small business. Many of these same businesses have no cybersecurity strategy plans in place at all.

Train employees in the business’s security principles.

Every business should have basic security services in place. For example, always use strong passwords. Implement guidelines for using the internet and rules on how to protect customer information.

It’s also important to protect information, computers and networks from cyber-attacks. Make sure the employees in your office have the latest security software on their computers. Also, only use updated web browsers and operating systems with the best defense against viruses. If software updates are available, make sure they are installed. It’s also important to provide a firewall security system for your internet connection. Do some of your employees work from home? Then, ensure their home systems are protected.

Mobile devices can also create a significant security risk.

It is important to require users to work on password-protected devices. Create a mobile device action plan by installing security apps to prevent criminals from stealing personal information.

If it’s important information or data related to the business, make back-up copies. In any sized business, it’s crucial to back-up your data. Word processing documents, electronic spreadsheets, databases, financial files and accounts should be backed-up. Automatically backing up the information if possible. If that is not possible, then back-ups should happen at least weekly. Also, store copies off-site.

Laptops can be an easy target for theft.

It is important to secure them when not in use. Make sure a separate user account is created for each employee using a shared computer. Also, require strong passwords. Trusted IT staff and key administrative staff should be the only ones with access to the passwords. Additionally, if you have a Wi-Fi network at work, it should be secure and encrypted. You can hide your Wi-Fi network as well so it cannot be broadcasted.

With your bank, make sure the most trusted validation tools are in place.

Every bank may have different standard policies when banking with them. It is important to know what anti-fraud services are in place. It’s also important to limit which employees have access to data and information, including credit card information. Try not to always use the same computer to process payments.

Employees should only be given access to systems they use on a regular basis.

They should never be allowed to install system software or programs without authorization. Passwords should be unique and changed every three months. If you have questions, refer to your vendors that handle sensitive data and see if they offer multi-factor authentication.

There are many IT professionals that can help you with your cyber security plan. By having a strong communications plan in place, it’s likely your data will be safe and secure.

At Cork Tree Creative, our web developers, Jessi and Erica, work with our clients to develop secure websites and routinely manage those sites to maintain their security. Contact us today for more information.

Oh, the ‘pound’ sign. How far you’ve come. For those caught up on important (not so recent) social media trends, it’s a hashtag. We also mustn’t forget it’s the universal number sign. However, when used as a hashtag, this multi-faceted little symbol has far more power than the number or pound sign ever had. Here’s how you can harness that power for good on LinkedIn in a digital age.

Using Hashtags on LinkedIn

What is a hashtag anyway? Think of it as a powerful categorizing tool. More specifically, a symbol to group together like content that lives on social media. Somewhere around the year 2007, Twitter users were in a frenzy about how content was displayed across the platform. It was a big jumble of topics, with no rhyme or reason. In an effort to control the chaos, hashtags were thrown into the mix. Now, posts on Twitter that contained keywords or phrases preceded by a ‘#’ symbol could be displayed in one, cohesive place where interested parties could find them. All you had to do was search the keywords in the search bar, and it would pull up related posts, mentions, and other media with the same tags.

While use of the hashtag for categorizing topics was born on Twitter, other social media platforms quickly followed suit. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest also allow for content on their sites to be grouped by relevant hashtags. Groups that can benefit from adequate use of hashtags differ with each platform. If you’re a business or individual that needs to network and sell themselves professionally, LinkedIn is a solid place to start. If you don’t know what LinkedIn is, think social media platform geared towards showcasing a professional identity.

Depending on your target audience, LinkedIn could be the best or only platform for you to shine. And shining bright on LinkedIn involves the proper use of hashtags (among other things). LinkedIn suggests using hashtags on its platform to establish credibility, reach people who value your offerings, and to network and start conversations over shared goals and interests.

Do Hashtags Actually Help?

Yes of course, we wouldn’t be talking about them if they didn’t. One of the best ways to reach your audience in this saturated market is to target yourself to the people or entities that care. Why would you want to sell hair products to a bald person? Or a car to someone who only wants to use bikes or public transportation? Once you get a lock on your ideal audience’s wants and needs, you can really use hashtags to your advantage. Additionally, LinkedIn is a great place to do it right now because according to their user data from 2020, only (approximately) 1 to 2 percent of users are even creating content regularly on the platform. This gives you even more room to stand out versus on other social media.

How to Use and Add Hashtags

Believe it or not, there’s a method to the hashtag madness, especially on LinkedIn. Being more of a showcase for businesses and talent, the content you post should be targeted, organized, and relevant to your audience. Not only must the tags be relevant, but they should also be work-appropriate. What works on one social media platform could jeopardize someone’s business on LinkedIn.

Where Do They Go?

Hashtags can go anywhere you can write words. They go on your own LinkedIn posts, shared articles, comments, groups, messages, videos, images, and job postings. Anything that has a text box can contain a hashtag, but that doesn’t mean you can just put hashtags anywhere and they’ll do what you want. While hashtags can go in comments and articles, this type of content doesn’t show up in search results. Try to keep hashtags at the end or embedded in your posts, media, and shared content. Hashtags aren’t meant to replace copy and shouldn’t be used as an alternative. This also appears unprofessional. One way to get the jump on where to place your hashtags is to write out your post, and then embed them where they make sense. They’re supposed to be used to complement and clarify your writing, not to replace it.

How Many Should I Use?

You may have assumed by now that the number of hashtags you should use on your LinkedIn posts also matters. You don’t want to have too many keywords; this will dilute your topic and can confuse your audience. Keep it concise, LinkedIn recommends the use of about 2 to 3 hashtags in each post. There’s technically no limit to how many hashtags you can use but try to keep it short and simple with what matters most. Each industry varies, however, so if yours could benefit from more than 3 hashtags, don’t limit yourself, but also don’t get out of control.

Long or short-tailed keywords?

During your hashtag research, you must decide on whether to use long-tailed keywords as hashtags or use one-word or concise hashtags. Longer words or phrases have the advantage of less competition but are also in fewer search results. Concise, one-word, or popular keywords will have higher search volume but bring more competition. Understanding what type of hashtags to use is an evolving process that must continually be tested and evaluated.

What are the popular LinkedIn hashtags?

This really depends on who you’re targeting, as different buzz words will matter to different niches. Use hashtags exclusively depending on the specific post, versus your entire brand.  Are you a shoe company looking to sell comfortable sneakers to working-class folk always on their feet? You can do research on bigger companies doing the same thing. What hashtags do they use? Note selected hashtags on their posts with high customer engagement. Start following these hashtags and do a deep dive on all content in this niche. Following hashtags is as simple as searching for it on LinkedIn search, clicking it, and then hitting follow once you are on the related search results. Here you can start to build a robust list of related keywords and phrases to test out on your LinkedIn posts to see if their hashtags resonate with your audience.

How do I track LinkedIn hashtags?

Researching and following hashtags on LinkedIn is a good way to get an idea about popular keywords and phrases in your niche but in order to access specific hashtag metrics and data on your LinkedIn content, you’ll need to use a media monitoring tool. You can monitor the hashtags you follow and see how many people also follow it, but that’s about it (for now) on hashtag metrics from content produced directly on LinkedIn. If you don’t use a monitoring tool, you can simply observe engagement on your content by taking notes on how many people interact with your posts. Metrics you can find include reactions, shares, follows, and comments.

Dos and Don’ts with LinkedIn Hashtags

Here are a few important things to avoid when utilizing hashtags on LinkedIn. Make sure you do not:

• Skimp on hashtag research. Use LinkedIn search to find related hashtags, follow them, analyze usage, and make a plan of attack. You can also do heavy keyword research on Google or hire someone to do it for you. Just make sure you do the research.
• Format incorrectly. Make sure the ‘#’ symbol goes before the keyword or phrase and doesn’t contain spaces, punctuation, special symbols, or emojis. If it’s a hashtag consisting of multiple words, write it out all one word, #kindalikethis.  Tags live by their own rules and standard grammar isn’t one of them.
• Forget to check your spelling. Yeah, grammar and punctuation might not really be a thing for hashtags but spelling still is. It can be easy to overlook them since they’re written differently than normal copy but missing even one letter will send your content into the void of missed opportunity.
• Have your posts set to private. This one is simple and straightforward, but easy to forget. Make sure your posts are being seen and heard by everyone.

Here are a few tips and things to remember when drafting up tag ideas. Try to:

• Capitalize multiple-word hashtags. This won’t impact your visibility but will make key phrases easier to understand.
• Consider location-based hashtags. If your content focuses on a specific region, make sure people in those areas have a front-row seat to your stuff.
• Don’t be afraid to use the popular ones. These keywords may have higher competition, but you also don’t want to lose your audience with a ton of unfamiliar hashtags. It’s a delicate balance.
• Make your own. After you or your marketing team outline your goals and audience, your brand would probably benefit from having its own hashtag. ASAP. When people follow it, they’ll be alerted to everything you post. Make the tag original and relevant. Do a little PR diligence and get multiple eyes on the keyword or phrase. You want to ensure it can’t be misinterpreted for something else.

Can’t figure out hashtags? We can help. Cork Tree Creative has a knowledgeable team that specializes in the evolving nuances of social media. Your online presence is important and can be the difference between brand recognition...or rejection. Make sure you’re getting it right the first time. We can help you brainstorm which tags to use, where they should go, and how to get you right in that visibility sweet spot.