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Campaign Budget Optimization for Facebook ‘Store Visit’ campaigns and our change of tone
On numerous occasions Social Fulcrum has been advocates for Facebook’s Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) tool. But in all that support we made it clear that we supported the use of CBO for most...
Facebook audience targeting expansion for interest-based audiences, yay or nay?
Traditionally Facebook has treated interest-based audiences as very strict filters. If you wanted to target people interested in the ‘Boston Red Sox’ and ‘Clam Chowder’, the people in that audience...
How do brands build a DTC strategy that co-exists with Amazon?
Now is not an easy time to be a marketer for an established consumer brand. Retailers are experiencing immense business pressure, and Amazon presents a uniquely new set of challenges for brands to...
Facebook’s Campaign Budget Optimization is not required…yet. Date for requiring CBO pushed, again.
Facebook CBO update from the nerdiest of Facebook’s inner circle: In Q1 of 2019, Facebook announced that their Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) tool would be required in September 2019 with no way...
Social Fulcrum Acquired By Target Data, A Leader In People-Based Marketing
We are thrilled to join the Target Data team to help drive performance on paid social channels. Becoming part of Target Data allows us to deliver better service and gives us access to new resources...
5 Powerful Strategies for Scaling your Facebook and Instagram Ad Spend
Have you "Hit A Wall" with your Facebook and Instagram Ad Spend? Over the last few years, we’ve audited a ton of Facebook ad accounts and we typically see the same errors being made that prevent...
Determine the True Impact of Your Facebook Ad Campaigns with Lift Attribution Testing
A Typical Scenario Imagine that you're currently in charge of paid Facebook advertising at a leading retailer...and it's Monday morning. You are now going through a report of your weekend ad spend....
Our Ongoing Analysis of Facebook’s Campaign Budget Optimization Tool (CBO)
Overview Facebook's Campaign Budget Optimization tool (CBO), moves money between ad sets within a campaign. It was originally going to be required that all advertises use CBO starting 09/01/2019,...
Social Fulcrum One of Boston’s “Top 10 Hottest Companies” by Inc. Magazine
We are honored to be a part of this great list of Boston companies. The list was created by using revenue growth over the past 3 years. Other notable Boston companies include Privy, Mavrck, and...
Social Fulcrum Client Pier 1 Imports Featured in Facebook Case Study
Social Fulcrum started working with Pier 1 Imports in 2018. Our structured testing, proprietary software, and platform expertise allowed us to drive large impact within a short timeframe. You can...
Social Fulcrum named #3 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in Massachusetts – Boston Business Journals 2019!
We are delighted to announce that Social Fulcrum has been named #3 on the Boston Business Journals list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies in Massachusetts, ranked by % growth from 2015 to 2018....
Social Fulcrum named #384 on the Inc500 List!
So proud to announce that Social Fulcrum has been named #384 on the Inc500 list of the fastest growing companies in the US, growing 1,296% over the past 3 years. We are one of only five marketing...
Using Facebook’s Store Visits and Offline Conversions to Boost Co-op Marketing Dollars
Facebook is making a major push toward attracting traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. They’ve developed two tools, Store Visits and Offline Conversions, that are tremendously powerful in driving...
Instagram Stories: New Facebook Placement Option Decreases Cost of Customer Acquisition by Nearly 50 Percent for Product Subscription Business
The Facebook platform gives advertisers a number of placement options. One of the newest is also one of the most exciting to us based on early testing: Instagram Stories. It’s a feature that allows...
Social Fulcrum Named by Clutch.co as top US Conversion Optimization Agency
Social Fulcrum is so excited to announce that we made Agency Spotter’s Top 20 Advertising Agencies! We are so proud of our progress. We’ve moved from #17 to #12 in the past 6 months. For those not...
Inc Magazine names Social Fulcrum as one of the 20 fastest growing Marketing Services companies in the US in 2016!
Social Fulcrum is delighted to announce that we have earned the position of #342 on the 2017 Inc. 500 list! For those not in the know, for the past 36 years, Inc. has recognized the fastest-growing...
Social Fulcrum Joins Snapchat’s Certified Partners Program
Welcome to the future: Social Fulcrum has officially been accepted to Snapchat’s Certified Partners Program! We’re in good company, partnering with the platform alongside companies such as 4C, the global leader in data science and media technology, as well as many Audience Match API, Creative API, and Creative partners.
SF Weekly Trends: Facebook Desktop CPMs Now Higher Than They Were in December
Below you'll find an assemblage of Facebook data gathered across industries, funnels, and campaign types. This data is designed to give you directional assurance of trends you may be observing in...
Meet Pinterest: Your Next Scalable Customer Acquisition Platform
Facebook is—without question— the platform digital advertisers should try first for customer acquisition campaigns. For some, Facebook will be all they ever need to reach their goals. But other...
Attention App Install Advertisers: Pinterest’s New Tools Improve Targeting and Lower Cost per Install
Pinterest may not be your first thought when it comes to choosing a platform for your app install campaign, but they’ve recently rolled out a set of tools that could make it your new favorite. Quick...
How to Make Your Funnel More Efficient By Reducing Friction
What can you do if you suspect that your cost of acquisition is higher than it should be? Our answer is to start by analyzing your customer funnel—and we mean the whole funnel, not just the top....
Attention Impressions: Facebook’s Innovative (Beta) Measurement Feature
Facebook is constantly innovating ways to add value as an advertising platform, and its new measurement feature—called Attention Impressions— is a breakthrough. Attention Impressions gives us a...
Social Fulcrum Named a Top Advertising Agency by Agency Spotter
Social Fulcrum is delighted to announce that we made Agency Spotter's Top 20 Advertising Agencies! For those not in the know, this report assesses the credentials, focus/expertise, and project work...
When Your Digital Advertising Hits a Ceiling — And What to Do About It
Paid online advertising is one of the most scalable channels that marketers have at our disposal, but the methods and tools that get you to a certain point can’t always get you to the next level....
Getting Higher Value at a Lower Cost: Tips on Winning the Facebook Bid Auction
How you score in Facebook's bid auction—and to no small degree how your ads perform—is determined by three factors. The first is your bid, which you set. The second is your estimated action...
In-Store Visits and Offline Conversions: Facebook Connects Online and Point of Sale Data
If you’re a brick and mortar retailer, digital marketing has likely never seemed especially compelling for measurable customer acquisition and engagement. Well, hold onto your hats—Facebook has two...
One-Tap: Finding Success with Pinterest’s New Beta
Pinterest’s new beta feature—called One-tap promoted pins—makes a good thing even better, especially for app install campaigns. While this feature is in its early days, we’re not only hearing...
Facebook’s CPM Pricing Trends Continue to Surprise Us (But in a Good Way)
“May you live in interesting times.” It’s a familiar saying—and whether you see it as a curse or blessing, it’s probably a bit of both. Now that 2016 is behind us, it’s safe to say it was an...
Social Fulcrum Partners with Facebook on E-Commerce Retail Case Study
New year, new Success Story! Through our continued collaboration with Facebook, we’ve generated an e-commerce retail case study highlighting success our clients have found through Facebook advertising…
Holiday Trends in Facebook CPM Pricing Showing a Milder Winter
Oh, the weather outside is frightful, and Facebook’s holiday pricing is even worse. Or is it? With last year seeing a 50% increase in CPM pricing, we projected an increase of roughly that magnitude for winter 2016, if not more. Yet this holiday season’s CPMs, while increased, are showing a much less aggressive uptick…
How The Network Effect Can Affect Your Advertising Spend
The network effect is a fairly well known economic concept: if the inherent value of a product or service increases as more and more people become users, you are seeing the network effect in action....
The Looming Threat of Saturation and Its Impact on Acquisition Costs
There’s a serious risk lurking in your blind spot Saturation can be a blind spot for marketers, and its effects are real. But like many threats we cannot see, we don’t think of them as real or...
How to Avoid the SEM Apocalypse with Paid Social
Do you depend on paid search? A surprising number of sophisticated marketers tell us they get ALL of their customers from SEM. But what happens in the event of an apocalypse? Saturation kicks in, or...
Pinterest’s Buyable Pins and The Future of Mobile Commerce
It’s safe to say that mobile is not a passing trend. Smartphones have changed everything about the digital landscape—okay, almost everything. More than two thirds of the time we spend consuming...
What You Can Learn From Trends in Our Facebook CPM Data
We help clients maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of their digital advertising—and of course a great deal of that advertising relies on Facebook as a platform. The intensive buying we do on...
Why Understanding Pinterest’s Baking Effect is Key to Measuring Your ROI
Your goal, as CMO or marketer, is to put your budget where you get a good ROI. But that can be hard to manage, especially when ads perform differently across different platforms. For example, on...
Paid Social vs. Digital Display: Which is the Better Choice?
Marketers’ feet are being held to the fire. Brands are demanding hard data with which to quantify the value of their advertising spend. If you are relying on digital display advertising to drive...
Tis The Season for Facebook Ad Prices to Skyrocket, Here Are Two Ways You Can Prepare
If seasonal trends in ad pricing continue this holiday season, Facebook pricing will go up – by a lot. Clients in years past had to brace for 20 to 30 percent increases. Last year, we saw Facebook’s...
Our Take on the Facebook Video View “Scandal”
On September 22, 2016, the Wall Street Journal ran an article you might have read with some concern. It carried an ominous headline for digital marketers and their clients: “Facebook Overestimated...
How Paid Social is Dominating the Ad Tech Ecosystem, One Layer at a Time
Social Advertising platforms are fundamentally changing and consolidating the entire landscape of advertising technology. Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn is a massive signal of this...
Lookalike Audience Gridding: Making the Most of Facebook Lookalikes
Too much of a good thing doesn’t sound like much of a problem, especially when that “good thing” is a fresh, new Facebook audience that has a lot in common with your existing customers. Facebook’s Lookalike Audience feature was designed to do just that: give you access to statistical clones or “lookalikes” of your best targets…
Which Customer Acquisition Approach Fits Your Business – Mongol Horde or European Colonizer?
So here you are, at the end of a long, glorious run. Your ads were hitting just the right audience. You knew them well and pulled them right in. As the leads came in faster, the cost
went down, and everything was blue skies, sunshine and rainbows. Then things started to change…
Summer CTR Slowdown: Advertisers Beware!
Our analytics allow us to aggregate cross-client and cross-platform data. A recent analysis of click-through-rate (CTR) shows us a massive decrease over the last 2 weeks. If your ad metrics have...
Pinterest: How You Can Optimize For The Aging Effect
Imagine you’re watching the Indy 500. It’s lap two of the race and you’re thinking about placing a bet. The problem is all you know is how the drivers performed on lap one. You don’t know which...
Tactics for sophisticated marketers: The portfolio theory of audience bidding
Many businesses become obsessed with obtaining the lowest COCA (Cost of Customer Acquisition), but depending on your goals, that may not be your optimal COCA. With all factors of a paid advertising...
Social Fulcrum Driving Performance for Waylens
We don’t do it for the recognition, but we’d be lying if we said we didn’t enjoy it. Social Fulcrum was recently featured as a Facebook advertising success story for the exceptional performance we achieved with Waylens, a performance-tracking camera manufacturer.
Announcing SocialLeads
Social Fulcrum has spent 5 years developing products and services to enable high-growth, data-driven companies to leverage social media advertising for new customer acquisition. In that time, we...
How to Get Brides to Say “I Do” to Your Promoted Pins
Want a sneak peek on the value our clients are seeing from the channel? We have several wedding clients on Pinterest acquiring new customers for as low as $10! Read on to see if this channel is a fit for your brand, and how you can best leverage the channel to drive new customer growth.
Like A Fine Wine: How Promoted Pins Get Better With Age
Advertising on a new platform can feel a little like a journey into the Twilight Zone: you’re bewildered, you have only the vaguest understanding of how you got there, and that person to your left could very well be an alien.
Okay, so the metaphor’s not perfect. But it’s true that both experiences can feel incredibly isolating. None more so than the challenging yet rewarding world of Promoted Pins.
What Are Lead Ads? Do They Work?
In the fall of last year, Facebook rolled out a new ad format, and it’s a big deal. Early results indicate that the newest members of the facebook ad family, lead ads, are game changing. Unlike previous ‘new’ ad types rolled out by facebook, lead ads are not just a different shape, they have a completely new function.
3 Tips for Online Customer Acquisition During the Holidays
Advertising pricing is based on supply and demand. Thus in times when demand for advertising inventory increases drastically, prices tend to increase significantly. Why does this matter to you? Our...
How to Crush Your Kickstarter Goals: A Case Study
Every marketing blog out there will tell you its “exclusive” tips for a successful Kickstarter campaign, but when your product is smarter and sexier than the competition, you want a strategy to...
Why You Should Only Care About Facebook Ads Right Now
Conventional wisdom tells us not to put all our eggs in one basket, so for marketers who advertise on social media, a multi-platform strategy has been the obvious solution. But what if you...
Brevity is Key When It Comes to Landing Pages
You may not know what a landing page is, but if you’ve ever bought anything or submitted your information online, you’ve definitely seen one. The purpose of a landing page is to capture user data,...
A Beginner’s Guide to Advertising on Instagram
Instagram has become much more than a place to share sepia-toned photos of your meal. It’s begun to allow more companies to advertise on the platform, presenting new opportunities for marketers –...
Social Fulcrum Selected as Managed Partner for Instagram Ads Beta
Instagram is the most recent social media giant to begin allowing partners to advertise on their platform directly using the Instagram API. Before, buying Instagram ads was an exceptional...
Facebook Improves Creative Testing and Optimization
Ads tested within ad sets on Facebook may now have more legs as a recent algorithm update broadens the reach of different variants before optimizing for a single ad, making for more reliable test...
Unbounce Panel: The Road to Conversion Optimization is Paved with User-Focused Content
The Conversion Road Trip Boston, hosted by Unbounce, brought a panel of experts with varied backgrounds to discuss conversion optimization, the holy grail of online marketers. While each speaker had...
Buyable Pins: An Ecommerce Marketer’s Dream Come True
Marketing on mobile devices has been a double-edged sword for ecommerce businesses looking to boost sales: It provides great exposure as users increasingly do research on their smartphones and...
Three Things Brands Should Keep in Mind When Advertising on Pinterest
Five years ago the digital bulletin board Pinterest became the go-to site for people looking to find and share recipes, DIY projects, health and fitness tips, and a number of other bite-sized pieces...
4 Reasons You Should Probably Test Pinterest Ads ASAP
There are several really good reasons to drop the marketing initiatives that you are currently working on so you can test Pinterest Ads: 1. Pinterest Uses Search Targeting, Similar to Adwords For...
Why We Test Ugly Pictures (Or the unexpected virtue of ignorance)
I haven't seen the Oscar-winning "Birdman (or the unexpected virtue of ignorance),"however I think it's parenthetical title is actually eerily appropriate for the state of the advertising industry...
Digital Marketing Internship: We are hiring 1-2 interns for the summer
Social Fulcrum is looking for 1-2 paid interns to join our team within the next couple of weeks. Ideally you are a recent graduate looking to test out a start-up work environment. We want people who...
Your App Install Ads Just Got More Powerful
In a move to make app install ads more profitable for businesses and more useful to the consumer, Facebook recently introduced a new tool that uses deep linking to display a purchase page after a...
Facebook Changes May Have Negative Effect on Organic Reach
Facebook recently implemented changes to its News Feed that limit the reach of posts that have been Liked or commented on by friends, effectively reducing the number of people who see unpaid posts...
It’s Not Too Late to Prepare for Google’s Latest Update
April 21 may have been a dark day for sites that still hadn’t updated their platforms for mobile use, as Google unrolled its latest update. This time, the algorithm change favored sites that allow...
Boston Customer Acquisition Meetup – The First of Many
As a business, Social Fulcrum is obsessed with helping our clients obtain the lowest cost of customer acquisition. Industry trends are further fueling the need for CA specialists across the board -...
Running significant volume on Facebook Ads? Use these tools to improve performance. #3 is Huge.
If you are running any significant ad volume on Facebook, you probably run into a few problems over and over: 1. Audience filters that don't match your audience (or ones that match don't seem to...
Use Redundant Analytics Whenever Possible
If you only have one web/app analytics system (e.g. Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, etc.) then you risk significant inaccuracy moving forward. Simply put, if you only have one system measuring your...
Funnel Vision
We see every website in terms of a funnel - a series of steps required to get a new customer to purchase your product (or take some other ideal action, like installing an app), and even further,...
Want Natural Backlinks? Do These 3 Things.
Though search engine ranking factors have changed drastically over the last several years - and will continue to change - backlinks, when done right, are still an effective strategy for boosting the...
The Works-Every-Time Tactic For Connecting With Influencers AND Generating Backlinks
If there were a simple yet effective content marketing tactic that could help your brand connect with targeted influencers while generating tons of high-quality backlinks with minimal effort, you'd...
A Totally Counter-Intuitive Way to Increase Conversion Rates
For online customer acquisition, it is generally considered a best practice to keep the funnel short and simple, making it as easy as possible for users to complete the checkout process. For...
6 Tips to Help You Improve Your Facebook ROI by Over 300%
Like many companies, we absolutely love Facebook. Why? Because it works! Our clients are showing absolutely enormous ROI on their campaigns. But one thing is incredibly important to note - none of...
3 things every company should be doing right now on Facebook
Facebook is blowing up. Their most recent financial results have kept their stock price soaring because of the huge revenue increases the platform is seeing as more and more advertisers get onto the...
The Advertising Industry is Broken
The advertising industry is broken, but it's not their fault. It was built for another time, where it made sense to do a ton of research and use creative instinct to guide messaging that was sent to...
Don’t Ever Hit “Boost Post.” Ever.
I know it’s tempting. It’s such a pretty button. It would be so easy to press. You don’t even need to enter your credit card info. In less than 3 seconds the post on your Facebook page could have...
How To Know If Your Facebook Advertising is Working
"How do I know if my Facebook Advertising is working?'" If you are spending more than $100/day in Facebook Advertising and you don't know how to tell if it's working, we've created a simple test to...
When should I use Facebook vs. Adwords?
Is Facebook Advertising the right way to market your product? What about Google Adwords? Both? If so, which comes first? Although there are myriad variables that go into answering that question, we...
How To Save Thousands of Dollars On Facebook Ad Testing
Whether you want to leverage Facebook Advertising for audience growth, content promotion, or lead generation/customer acquisition, the key to success is isolating the audiences and messaging that...
How To Measure Conversion Rates for E-Commerce Sites [Google Analytics Tutorial – With Pictures!]
E-Commerce sites are all about conversion. It's all about taking a customer from a certain step in the decision-making process, and moving them through a set of steps until they purchase. Increasing...
5 Problems That Are Killing Your Online Marketing (And How to Fix Them)
So, you have an online marketing plan…but how effective has it been? If you feel that you’re not getting the results that you want, then there may be issues with your digital marketing strategy....
10 Inspirational Quotes For Your Social Media Marketing Game Plan
Social media can feel like a blessing and a curse at times, but the most important aspect about it is being strategic and making it work for you. This means creating an online voice that is...
User-Generated Content Should Be A Part Of Your Social Media Strategy. Here’s Why.
Many brands leverage the benefits of user-generated content (UGC) through large scale contests or promotions. By asking for photo submissions - like Shoeboxed did with their Messy Desk Contest - or...
How we increased content downloads by 27%
Over the next few weeks we will be giving you actionable advice to help you promote your company's content on Facebook. This is 6 of 6 in the series, where we make the argument that hosting your...
4 Ways You Can Improve Your Digital Marketing Strategy in 2014
Everyday it seems as if there is a new social media platform or app popping up on the market. As overwhelming as this may seem, it’s important to stay tapped into new innovations in order to...
5 Things You Should Know About Twitter Advertising
Twitter's self-serve ad platform has been open to all since April of this year. With an estimated 500 million users and ever-evolving features that are making it easier for brands to market on...
How To Lower Your Cost-Per-Acquisition With Facebook Advertising
Over the next few weeks we will be giving you actionable advice to help you promote your company's content on Facebook. This is the 5th of 6 in the series, where we help you understand the "why" and...
Double your Facebook reach with content partnerships
Over the next few weeks we will be giving you actionable advice to help you promote your company's content on Facebook. This is the 4th of 6 in the series, where we explain how to create content...
Social Fulcrum Wins PR News Award for Facebook Campaign
Social Fulcrum is honored to be recognized by a PR News award in Facebook Communications for our client DiabetesWellBeing.com. Within just 10 months, we were able to generate a huge, targeted...
Pin-O-Mania: 5 Ways To Attract More Eyeballs To Your Boards
Have you heard? ShareThis recently revealed through curated data that Pinterest has become one of the fastest growing content sharing platforms online. In fact, Pinterest is closing in on email as...
How to increase Facebook engagement by 67%
Over the next few weeks we will be giving you actionable advice to help you promote your company's content on Facebook. This is the 3rd of 6 in the series, where we help you incorporate visuals into...
Marketing for Physicians: 6 Tools for Crazy Growth
It is a tumultuous time for physician practices. On the one hand, there is incredible opportunity: the internet allows for an incredible amount of exposure, and the ability to reach your patients...
How Transparent Should Your Business Be On Social Media?
It’s a well-known fact: sharing is caring. But how transparent should your company strive to be online? Transparency is a word that has gotten a lot of buzz in social media; by engaging with an...
Facebook Content Promotion (Part 2 of 6): Diversify Your Posts
Over the next few weeks we will be giving you actionable advice to help you promote your company's content on Facebook. This is part 2 of that series, where we give you guidance on how to...
Joining the Social Fulcrum Team
Below is an intro from Liane Membis, our new Account Coordinator. I am excited to have joined Social Fulcrum as an Account Coordinator this week. In my new role, I'll have the opportunity to apply...
Facebook Content Promotion (Part 1 of 6): The Basics
Over the next few weeks we will be giving you actionable advice to help you promote your company's content on Facebook. This is the first of that series, where we tell you two simple-yet-important...
Winning Search Engine Rankings in 2014: It’s not what you think
Google recently released it's latest search engine update: Hummingbird. Although the science behind the change is complex, the implications for your marketing are simple: 1. Create unique, valuable...
Free eBook: How the Pros Leverage Facebook to Distribute Branded Content
How do you create content that grows audience size, engagement, and conversion? How do you ensure such content is seen by your target audience? These are questions that every marketer wants to...
4 Different Types Of Content Used For Content Marketing
Many immediately associate the concept of content marketing with B2B; lengthy white papers filled with fancy industry-speak that are distributed to high-level executives through channels like...
How to Make Bloggers Love You
The top 5 most-popular blogs have a combined audience of over 100 million people. That's five times more than the finale of American Idol. What does that mean? You need to know how to pitch...
We’re Finalists!
Social Fulcrum is proud to announce that we've been selected as finalists in the Facebook Communications category of PR News' Digital PR Awards! As a small, three-year-old company, we're thrilled to...
Is your company social? Here is a simple test to find out.
Though almost all companies participate in some way on social media sites by now, few understand that it is much, much more than just a marketing channel. Yes, social media can provide support in...
3 Content Marketing Challenges (And Solutions)
"Content isn't king. It's the kingdom." - Lee Odden There are no limits to what great content marketing can do. From increased brand awareness and expert positioning, to improved search engine...
3 Quick Tips to Help You Save Time Blogging
Blogging takes time. Great blogging can sometimes take a lot of time. But it doesn't have to. Use these 4 tips to help you create great content without using up all your time. Use content you've...
6 Clues that You Need a Better Content Marketing Strategy
For B2B companies, service companies, and web-centric businesses, content marketing is a must-have tool in your marketing toolbox. However it can be an easy task to let fall to the bottom of your...
Facebook Meltdowns: Behavior That Can Ruin Your Reputation
The whole point of having a Facebook page is for a company to engage with its fans in a more personal, direct way. Being able to leave comments on a company’s page, or send them direct messages,...
Increase Your Click Through Rate (CTR) on Social Media
Most businesses, whether big or small, are talking with their consumers on social media. Comments, retweets, and @replies are the standard ways to measure engagement on Twitter. Another way to...
How to Build a Kick-@$$ Social Media Team
Knowing your goals, strategy, and metrics for social media are all important. But if you don't have a social media team that can implement, you will have some serious issues getting the results you...
9 Tips to Help Double Your Landing Page Conversions
If you are implementing a content marketing strategy, you eventually need to create leads out of the traffic to your website. We've put together a list of 9 things you can do immediately to help...
Off-Page SEO: Improve Your Ranking Through Social Media
Many people think that search engine optimization is all about inserting specific keywords into a page’s content. While that is the basis of most SEO work, a lot more off-page factors go into...
Online Reputation Management: How to Leverage Bad Reviews
Reviews are essential for businesses: they provide a first hand account of a customer or client’s experience with the company, and they tell the company what aspects of the business work and what...
Facebook Fails at… Facebook?
This week Facebook fails at the most ironic thing possible, and created a negative PR storm for itself, by responding poorly to a user trying to help Facebook. We expect this to happen to brands on...
4 Must-Have Elements of Any B2B Content Marketing Strategy
"B2B Content Marketing" is incredibly important for brand positioning, search engine optimization, and lead generation/conversion. Although the benefits of a content marketing strategy have been...
Agile Digital Marketing
Recently I obtained my MBA from Babson College, the #1 ranked school for entrepreneurship for 20 years in a row. I learned many things, among them learning about the agile/lean start-up methodology....
You Can’t Measure the ROI of Social Media
Yes, we said it. You cannot measure the ROI of social media marketing. Let us explain: Finding ways to measure the bottom line impact of social media has been discussed and debated since brands...
6 Reasons Why Your Facebook Ads Aren’t Getting Any Clicks
If you are a marketer for a small or medium sized business, chances are you've created at least one Facebook ad. Hopefully you've found strategic ways to leverage this powerful tool to drive...
When You Google Yourself… Do You Like What Shows Up?
John is a lawyer from Indiana who specializes in family law. He's dealt with hundreds of cases in his career, and like most lawyers has had his share of unsatisfied customers. Regardless of...
How to Get 7,500 Facebook Likes in Two Weeks For Just $80
Ok, let's start off with a disclaimer: the strategy we're about to describe will only work for some brands/pages. This is hardly a one-size-fits all approach for Facebook ads, but when it works, it...
Connect Your Content Strategy To Your Business Goals
As marketers and businesses, we are posed with the task of creating useful and valuable content for our audiences, but often we forget to connect the dots between the content we put out there and...
Web Design Trends for 2013
I’m looking forward to an exciting year ahead for web design. Designers and developers are pushing the limits of the new technologies available. We can expect to see more integrated websites that work as well for mobile devices as they do for monitors and that use content from more than one source to build a more complete experience for site visitors. Learn more about the leading trends:
How to Get Rid of Bad Reviews
If you are a small business owner that depends on customer reviews, like a restaurant, you may have run into issues with disgruntled employees or angry customers writing negative reviews on sites...
6 Steps To A Successful Facebook Contest
Thinking about launching a Facebook contest for your brand? Follow these steps for successful, goal-oriented implementation.1. Plan Effective planning involves asking yourself a series of questions:...
5 Tips To Brand Success On Pinterest & Instagram
The social media world was set ablaze by visual-centric newcomers Pinterest and Instagram. With the most ridiculous growth and adoption rates seen in a very long time, both platforms had a lot to...
Forget A Fan Page — Build a COMMUNITY Page
Don't let the title fool you. This isn't another one of those posts written to tout the importance of engagement, interaction, and other fancy buzzwords on your brand's Facebook page. No, we're...
How to Target Mobile Users with Google AdWords for Local & Small Businesses
For small and local businesses with limited marketing budgets, hearing about companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on search engine marketing each month may sound like an indication...
Step #1 in your social media strategy: Read the Steve Jobs Biography…. Wait, what?!?
We can do a lot of things for you here at Social Fulcrum. We can find your best customers and incentivize them to spread positive word about your company/products. We can monitor and positively...
Facebook is Public: How Millions of Shareholders Will Affect Your Marketing Strategies
Facebook makes 5% of its IPO (Inital Public Offering) each year (over $1 billion in revenue in 2011)- and this number is pacing to grow. Unlike the Groupon, Yahoo! and AOL IPO's, the Facebook IPO is...
Automated Ambassador Programs – Good or Bad?
When it comes to social media marketing, automation is something that is generally frowned upon. But we recently learned about an automated brand ambassador solution that doesn't sound all bad....
How Social Media Can Help Your Sales Team
"ROI" has been an ever-present buzzword in social media marketing for years. Everyone wants to know: "How much is a fan worth?" "How much money will each follower spend?" "How are my social media...
Facebook Timeline for Pages… Now What?
Today marked the launch of something we all knew was coming - Facebook Timeline for Pages. Just as Facebook switched all personal profiles over from the old news feed view into the newer, more...
Twitter For Business: Our Guest Post on GetBusyMedia.com
If you're a regular reader of our blog, you've no doubt heard us preach the value of Twitter for businesses larges and small alike. Today, we were lucky enough to have a guest post published by our...
The Importance of Timing Your Social Media Posts
They say timing is everything; but how do you get your timing to be just right? When it comes to posting on your brand's social media channels, this starts with knowing your audience. Certain groups...
Promoting Your Social Media Contest
Launching a contest via social media channels can be a great method for building a larger fan base, engaging more thoroughly with current fans and followers, and increasing overall buzz about your...
Old and Busted: “Liking.” New Hotness: “Stumbling.”
No, You Ain't Trippin', You Just Stumblin', Baby Posting a link to share on Facebook is as commonplace as updating a status, a function of the social network that has made it the highest source of...
Getting Acquainted with Google “Related”
World Domination? Right on schedule Hot on the heels of their acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Google has introduced a relevant and convenient new feature poised to keep Google as king of the...
Announcing Something Major – Consumers are Talking. Are You Listening?
People Are Afraid of Change Change is never a bad thing. Innovation is what drives people forward and results in the breeding of competition amongst businesses, both big and small. In every...
Measuring Your Social Media Reach
What's In a Tweet? When it comes to Twitter, there's no better feeling (short of being followed) than for someone to retweet your tweets. Not only did someone find your tweet to be interesting and...
Foursquare Announces Business Pages For All
What had once been reserved exclusively for big brands with money to spend has now been made available to the masses. As of this morning, Foursquare has now made it possible for any business, big or...
Social Media & Customer Service
Maybe you don't believe that social media has an effect on sales, and we'll leave the convincing you of otherwise to another blog post. But if you've ever spent 3 hours on hold with customer...
How to Get Influencers to Talk About Your Brand
No matter the industry your brand falls under, be it retail, education, lifestyle, etc., there are undoubtedly a handful (or more) of people who act as influencers to your target audience. Reaching...
Google: Introducing New Face and New (Google) “Places”
At recent event put on by DigitalDUMBO, Google made an effort to extend its global reach by holding a focus presentation designed to garner feedback about its location-based ratings and reviews...
Smartphones: Another Connection Between Consumer and Brand
Think Different (Again) Since being introduced back in 2007, the iPhone has effectively changed mobile computing. From its simple, intuitive interface, to its wealth of apps, it's changed the way...
Increase Facebook Likes With A Custom Facebook Landing Tab
If you're looking to increase the number of likes on your Facebook page - who isn't? - one of the best tactics is to create a Facebook landing tab for new visitors. If you have valuable content and...
Google Offers: Coming to a (New York) City Near You
Google's Come to Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse Over the past few months, competition in the daily deals market has become extremely heated, what with an IPO from Groupon imminent and...
Facebook Announces Answer to Google+, Future of Social Networks
Your Move, Google In a move that was no doubt in response to Google's unveiling of Google+ the previous week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a product announcement at the company's headquarters...
Google+: Google Reboots Its Social Media Efforts
The ‘Buzz’ Around Google+ This week, Google announced that it would be taking another crack at the world of social networking with its latest effort, Google+. While you’re probably asking yourself,...
B2B Social Media: Prove Your Value
Many B2B companies are not yet sold on the value of social media as a worthwhile tool for increasing sales or attaining new business. In marketing our own company, we've seen first hand just how...
Sterling Cooper Draper Zuckerberg: Facebook’s New Ad Agency Tool
Facebook: Now More Advertiser Friendly Than Ever In a move that should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, social networking behemoth, Facebook, has taken the recent news of their dominance of...
Our Secret Sauce: What Goes Into a Social Media Marketing Campaign?
We realized something today. We are awesome at implementing social media marketing campaigns because most of our time is spent...NOT using social media. Wait, what? Allow me to explain. We get...
Social Media Content Management Tools: Choosing the Right One
One of the biggest concerns for businesses looking to establish a social media presence is the sheer number of hours that are required for successful social media management. Between tweets,...
You, Google and (Now) Me on the Web
Google's Got Your Back In the digital age we live in, there are so many places we put ourselves on the web it's hard to keep track. Whether it's on Facebook engaging your customers or on Twitter...
The Best Questions are Often Tweeted
When people think of Twitter, the first thing that comes to mind is a chaotic whirlwind of people updating others on what they're doing, where they're doing it, and who they're doing it with at any...
Use E-Zines to Boost Website Search Engine Ranking
Many brands manage their websites with the Field of Dreams mentality that “if you build it they will come," i.e. the belief that if you create content for your website then web traffic will come...
How Apple and Twitter Just Made Business Better
Something Tweeting This Way Comes On Monday, at their annual World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC), Apple made some astounding announcements regarding consumers' future interactions with their...
Blog Posts – How to Write Them for Your Business
So you’ve taken the plunge and decided to create a blog for your business. The next step is to create that first post. You probably have a good idea what to write about. But you’ll need more than...
Why You Should Be Using Facebook Questions
So you've set up a Facebook page and have a few fans - now what? This issue is one that many businesses encounter after entering the social media space, but a new Facebook feature offers a simple...
Which Social Network is Right for My Company?
It's the question on every business owner's mind, but if you're expecting us to answer it, prepare to be disappointed. Sure, we could tell you to throw up a fan page on Facebook or create an account...
Should you use CPC or CPM bidding for Facebook Advertising?
This is a question that we often get, and we decided to make a short video explaining the difference between cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-thousand (CPM) bidding on Facebook. In this video,...
Social Media Has No Effect on Sales? We Think Not.
A couple of days ago, Forrester Research and GSI Commerce released a report which analyzed data from online retailers, examining the effect that their social media efforts had on influencing...
The New Facebook “Send” Button
Notice anything new at the bottom of this post? It's the new Facebook send button, which allows users to send information from around the web to their Facebook friends, without leaving the page they...
How to Create Facebook Ads – Lessons from an Unlikely Source
If you are a company looking for inexpensive, creative, and effective ways to reach your target audiences, look no further than...a singles ad? Matt Simpson is "an educated, thoughtful, and active...
9 Ways Social Media is Like Sex
We were lucky enough to be invited to write a post for PR at Sunrise, a blog from PR guru Andrew Worob. We wanted to hammer home the Do's and Don'ts of social media, without writing another one of...
We’re Big on Productivity
Our business model depends on the organized and efficient usage of time. When (1) we've allotted 15 minutes per day for tweeting for client A, and (2) 30 minutes of social media monitoring for...
The Value of a LinkedIn Answer
Is answering LinkedIn questions a part of your social media marketing strategy? If not, it should be – answering questions on LinkedIn is one of the most valuable social media marketing tactics,...
Good Books for Entrepreneurs or Small Business Owners
We like to stay on top of our game. Sometimes that means trying some new social media marketing strategy on our own business, but in this case it means reading books that develop our business...
Social Media Training in NYC
You don't need to be in NYC for our social media training course, but we like to use NYC as our training hub because there is so much word of mouth flying around all over the place in this dynamic...
Viral Video: Optimizing for Shareability
Several days ago, our friends at Mashable published a thought-provoking infographic titled, “How Videos Go Viral.” The infographic was introduced with a quick story about a video which showed a dog...
Practical Tactical, Part 2 – Word of Mouth Marketing Tactics Continued
This is our second post in a series designed to give our readers greater insight into the tactics behind word of mouth marketing and social media tools and strategies. Let us know if you have...
Practical Tactical, Part 1 (Word of Mouth Marketing Tactics)
One reason that social media can be confusing is the "grey area" concerning tools and tactics. Literally, the term "social media" concerns a set of media that can be used for business purposes....
The Cost of Social Media
Although social media is widely used today among consumers and businesses, the truth is, it’s still a fairly new space in which standards have yet to be created. One area where this couldn’t be...
What is a Social Fulcrum?
Some people think the word "leverage" is over-used, and maybe they are right. Unfortunately for them, we are still going to use it on a daily basis. We think the word "leverage" is important because...
VP Andrew Krebs-Smith Gives Social Media Strategy Presentation to Executive MBA Students
On December 17, 2010, Vice President Andrew Krebs-Smith visited his alma mater, Loyola University, to offer social media advice to a class of Executive MBA students. The presentation, “Executive...
The Consumer Decision Journey: Why Ambassador Programs Work
In December 2010, the Harvard Business Review published a special 20 page section entitled, “Spotlight on Social Media and the New Rules of Branding.” The slew of articles included began with a...
VP Andrew Krebs-Smith Speaks at Loyola University Social Media Panel
On Thursday, December 2, Social Fulcrum Vice President and Founder Andrew Krebs-Smith was invited to speak at Loyola University’s First Annual Social Media Panel: Networking Online and Offline,...
An Opportunity for Law Firms & Social Media Marketers: The Depuy ASR Hip Recall
In August, a widely used hip implant, the Depuy ASR, was recalled. Since the announcement, law firms everywhere are competing for the large number of potential cases that resulted from the recall....
In-Page Google Analytics Beta is an Amazing Tool for eCommerce Sites (and all websites)
Google has recently launched a new tool that is incredibly beneficial for website owners, marketers, web designers, and anyone curious about web usage trends. Google now shows you, right on your...
1,629% Return on Investment (ROI)
No, we didn't put the decimal in the wrong place. Yes, this is somewhat misleading because it doesn't take into account what the client is paying us to get these results. However, the results are...
Social Media Doesn’t Create Anything
Those sound like words that shouldn't come from an agency that specializes in social media. Shouldn't we be talking about all the things that social media DOES create? Conversations, interaction,...
