What is a social media strategy and why do you need one?

Every company in today's world should have a social media presence, and how you use social platforms greatly influences 

the success they will have on your sales. 

You need to create a "strategy" for your social media marketing to define exactly how your business will use your chosen platforms and communicate with customers.

It is important to determine in advance what kind of posts you will create, how often you plan on posting, who will be responsible for replying to interactions, and how you will measure the results of your social media marketing. 

It is essential to plan out this strategy in advance to save time, stay organized, and make sure everyone at your company is on the same page. 

Live-streamed video took off on social media at the end of 2016, and many believe 2017 will be the year it explodes. Pre-recorded video will still have its own place, but brands will begin to increase their use of real-time video streaming to help engage their target audience.

Live video is becoming increasingly popular because it allows brands to

Emojis are becoming the new language of mobile devices. In case you have been living under a rock since 2011, an emoji is a digital image that represents an idea, thought, feeling, emotion, object or action. 

WHAT YOUR KIDS CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT EMOJIS

For the younger generations, in particular, emojis are the expression of today and it doesn't look like that is changing anytime soon. Emojis bring opportunity. They give individuals the chance to express emotions in a creative and authentic way via digital conversation.

So it would be a missed opportunity if

Facebook recently announced that once again it had miscalculated the audience viewing ads on their social networking site.

This comes after a correction in September admitting it had miscalculated the "average duration of videos viewed." Needless to say, advertisers were not pleased. However, Facebook executives have assured advertisers that measures are being put in place to correct these miscalculations and provide more transparency on buyer behavior and the advertising metrics themselves.

If your business is looking for an edge over the competition, the best way to establish your superiority is by successfully curating interesting and relevant content that your customers find valuable and read-worthy. The more valuable content you share, the more your customer base will grow.  

How do politicians get us so stirred up? 

The presidential election of 2016  is one of the most unexpected, heated, and distinct elections that America has ever seen. The two individual presidential candidates affect voters in very different psychological ways, swaying them with common marketing and advertising practices brands should also be taking advantage of. 

1. Your Website Must be Mobile Friendly

About 71 percent of Internet usage happens on mobile devices. Internet users spend on average 86 minutes a day on mobile internet, contrasted to 36 minutes on desktop internet. Earlier this year, Google altered its algorithm to give higher rankings on search engine results pages to mobile-optimized websites. Make sure your business website is mobile-friendly. 

STOP USING These 3 social media Tactics

Making a strict employee social media policy

Some companies have social media policies so lengthy they get their own binders. Zappos, on the other hand, has a policy so short it could fit on a Post-It: “us be real, and use your best judgment.”

If you’ve got an incredibly strict, detailed employee social media policy, it might be time to

Snapchat is a creative way for marketers to reach their target audience and have fun doing it. In the beginning, critics had their doubts and claimed efforts exerted towards this new platform would lead to drained attempts and lost time.

However