Fraud Alert: Beware of Scammers Using WSIOMS’ Name
We have been made aware that scammers are impersonating WSIOMS Digital Marketing, falsely claiming to offer freelance work and requesting personal banking information. These fraudulent messages are being sent via WhatsApp by someone pretending to be “Enzokuhle or Omphilr, the HR Assistant at WSIOMS.”
⚠️ Please be advised: ✅ WSIOMS does not offer freelance work. ✅ We will never contact anyone via WhatsApp for job opportunities or payment details. ✅ If you receive such messages, do not engage—delete them immediately.
We take this matter seriously and are working to stop these fraudulent activities. If you suspect you have been contacted by a scammer using our name, please delete the message and report it.
If you’re looking into influencer marketing to boost your brand, but you’ve got a limited budget, consider partnering with micro-influencers. Micro-influencers promote brands, product launches and services while making use of the power of niche marketing. Here’s how it works:
Who counts as micro-influencers?
Later describes micro-influencers as people who have a significant, but not massive, social media following. This number is subjective and can range from anywhere between 10,000 to 500,000 followers. The exact number usually depends on who you talk to and the influencer market you are targeting. Micro-influencers have specific niche audiences that are deeply engaged and connected to them. Whether you’re a beauty, fitness, fashion, lifestyle, wellness, food or travel brand, there is probably a large pool of micro-influencers available to reach out to.
How do micro-influencers differ from macro-influencers?
For starters, major social media influencers (or macro-influencers) have attained some sort of “celebrity status”. These types of influencers often have hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of followers, and it probably costs an arm and a leg just to have them promote or endorse a brand’s product or service. These types of influencers also tend to lead more lavish lifestyles than your average consumer. Some extreme and notable examples of influencers that fall into this bubble are the Jenners and Kardashians.
On the other hand, micro-influencers are much more like your everyday consumer. Although the criteria of who qualifies as a micro-influencer remains very subjective, they are overall more relatable and personable to their niche audience. If they were to recommend a product or service, it might seem more like a trusted recommendation from a friend rather than a celebrity endorsement.
Why should I partner with micro-influencers?
Micro-influencers can be extremely valuable for your brand because they’ve already built a strong following. They’ve established a certain level of trust and a relationship with their followers through their personal brand. As a marketer, collaborating with micro-influencers can help you cast a wider net to increase your brand visibility. Here’s how:
By expanding reach:
Whether you want to promote a campaign for your business or promote a new product/service, working with a group of micro-influencers can help you reach a wider audience. They can promote your brand using videos that will help ignite your marketing campaigns or other types of content. It’s also more important than ever before to understand the importance of using Instagram Stories for business, especially when it comes to influencer marketing.
By helping you build lasting relationships:
Working with micro-influencers can help you build lasting relationships with their followers. Studies have shown that influencers with a smaller following have a much higher engagement rate than top-tier influencers. Rather than just tagging your business or brand in a post, micro-influencers are more likely to give honest opinions and reviews on your product.
By giving you a higher ROI:
Rather than spending your entire influencer marketing budget on a macro-influencer celebrity to promote your business or brand, investing in collaborations with a group of micro-influencers can help you get more bang for your buck! This is definitely a great way to save on your marketing spend.
How to find micro-influencers
Now that you have a general idea of who micro-influencers are and what they can do for your plan, now comes finding the right micro-influencers for your influencer marketing strategy. Here are a few key considerations to keep top of mind:
Make sure they are relevant to your brand.
Will they do a good job representing my brand? Do their values align with our brand and business values? Make sure to do your research beforehand and ask yourself these questions. Targeting the wrong micro-influencers will result in a very low ROI.
Engage with them and show appreciation for their content.
Realistically, you’ve got to know why you are reaching out to specific micro-influencers. Get to know them before reaching out to see if they’re a good fit for your marketing strategy. Engage with them and show some appreciation for their content to get a feel for how they interact with their audience. This can help you determine whether or not they are a good fit for your brand.
Look for micro-influencer fans.
Conduct an Instagram search to find content that may contain your brand. Follow branded hashtags and there’s a possibility that micro-influencers may already be a part of your brand’s fanbase. For example, many micro-influencers in the beauty industry are constantly promoting and tagging different brands’ products. They name drop brands all the time when doing reviews, sharing their makeup and skincare routines. And not all of these posts are sponsored or in collaboration with those brands. Beauty companies like Glossier see this as a unique opportunity to approach these types of micro-influencers because they know they are already an ambassador for their line of products.
If you’re interested in influencer marketing, or you’ve found a micro-influencer you’d like to partner with, contact WSIOMS for help with your influencer marketing strategy.
I do a lot of work and training on how Financial Advisors can use LinkedIn to market their practice and for lead generation, which has led me to develop a few clear-cut marketing strategies for these professionals. Recently, I hosted a webinar for 323 financial planners that belong to the Financial Planning Institute of South Africa.
The Financial Advisor and Planners signed up for the webinar because they wanted to learn how to prospect for new clients using online techniques, how to stay relevant in this competitive market, how to prepare for succession planning, how to use social media to keep their client relationships going, and how people over 50 can bridge the gap if they are stuck in their traditional ways of prospecting.
Why financial planners need digital marketing
“Financial advisors no longer control all of the information investors rely on to make financial decisions.”
In the past, Financial Advisors were in control of the information that investors relied on to make financial decisions. Google has made access to all the information free, which makes it easy to see why financial advisors need digital marketing. If a practice is to succeed, it will have to use the Internet.
With a homepage having about 10 seconds to deliver a compelling message, we discussed what Financial Planners need to make sure website visitors have an experience on the site that will lead them to initiate contact. I then talked briefly about all the components of digital marketing including SEO, content marketing, social media, website design, email marketing, analytics, paid search advertising and digital campaigns. I also delved into the importance of inbound marketing – and the role of blogging and email marketing – to give Financial Planners ideas on how they can use the Internet to solve financial problems for clients, establish themselves as experts, increase traffic to their websites, and produce contact data for their email drip systems.
With cold calling having a 95% rejection rate, Financial Planners were keen to discuss and learn about other methods – such as a customised email marketing campaigns – that are less disruptive and leave a positive impression of their practice.
The single biggest trend that impacts the way Financial Advisors market their services in inbound marketing. With outbound marketing tactics offering diminishing returns, the Financial Advisors were eager to explore ways that content creating, free offers, social media, and email marketing can be used to connect with potential clients.
We also delved into the social media channels that Financial Advisors can afford to be on, the social media platforms that offer the most value for Financial Advisors, what they can expect when interacting with their target audience on these platforms, how to connect with centres of influence, and how to successfully connect with their prospects online.
I want to thank the Financial Planning Institute of South Africa for setting this up and letting me speak to their financial planners. Get in touch if you would like tailored digital marketing or LinkedIn training for yourself or your team, or if you need WSI OMS to help you with your digital marketing or online presence.
If your social media marketing strategy does not include Facebook ads, you’re missing out on a crucial method of telling the world about your business. Because Facebook ads are becoming more complex and with new developments happening all the time, it is important to set clear goals for your Facebook ad campaigns so you can monitor your success and make the relevant changes in time.
Social Media Marketing Best Practices: Facebook Ads
Don’t aim for popularity- create objectives that drive value
With so many different advertising objectives available to your business, it can become difficult to pick the correct goals to aim for in Facebook advertising. The best plan is to determine which goals will produce the most value for your business, and aim for those objectives. Value-driving objectives no longer just include likes on your page or clicks to your website but should include conversions and brand awareness. Being popular on Facebook may help your business to reach more audience members, but if those views don’t convert into sales, they are not worth the advertising budget.
Try out Facebook’s Placement Optimisation
Placement options on Facebook include Facebook and Instagram feeds, the Audience Network, and Facebook Messenger. If you choose to activate all the placement options available to you, the Facebook Ad platform will learn which placements are the best at achieving your objectives in a cost-effective manner, enhancing your campaign performances without all the research effort from your side.
Experiment with the Campaign Budget Optimisation option
Similar to the Placement Optimisation process, the Campaign Budget Optimisation lets the Facebook Ad platform find opportunities to achieve your set goals across your ad sets and give priority in the budget allocation to the ads that are performing well. This option takes away some of the control you have over your ads but can help you to spend your budget more effectively across your Facebook Ads.
Learn when to niche down and when to target broader audiences
For a long time, Facebook Ads that targeted small, niche groups performed better than broader target groups. Due to the increase in targeting and competition, it may cost more to target a smaller group with your Facebook Ad. This aspect of the Facebook Ad platform makes it crucial to understand when targeting a broader audience may be more cost-effective. If you’re trying to make your budget go further, set your audience broader so Facebook Ads can reach different people at a lower cost.
Optimise for mobile when creating
The statistics for mobile use of social media platforms alone should indicate that mobile-first creation is key to achieving success in social media marketing. If your advertisement doesn’t load correctly on a mobile device, it won’t go down well with social media users.
If you need a strategic partner in social media marketing, SEO optimisation, and Facebook Ads, contact WSIOMS, your local SEO company and marketing agency, for more information today.
If you’re having a hard time defining your social media marketing target market, WSIOMS has some tips to help you choose and target the correct audience for your business content. Standing out from the digital crowd is becoming harder as the competition gets tougher, so you need to be very specific in targeting audiences with content that will give them value. Here’s our guide:
How to Define and Target your Social Media Marketing Audience
Spend time getting to know your customers:
If you’re making use of a social media marketing agency, you probably already have a few customers who you can study to find out more about how audiences will react to your social media marketing strategy. Use your existing client base to understand the demographics of your audience, including information like age, location, income and spending power, preferred language of communication, and interests. These insights will help you to narrow your target market down to a more manageable group, giving you the power to personalize your content and cater to your specific niche.
Get feedback and insights through social listening:
Social listening is one of the most effective ways to define your target market and gain deep insights into what makes your audience tick. With social listening, you’ll monitor direct feedback and relevant discussions on your social media channels. This will help you to compile lists of topics your target market might be interested in, learn about competitors in your industry, and gain insights on essential opportunities you might want to take advantage of. By engaging in social listening, you’ll form a better understanding of who your audience really is, and who you should not be targeting with your social media marketing efforts.
Experiment until you find what works for you:
When you’ve gathered information and insights through studying your customers and social listening, you’ll need to experiment with different approaches to your social media marketing strategy. Write copy in different voices, post content on various social media platforms, and create ways for your audience to engage with you through competitions, polls, and lead magnets. Through experiments, you’ll find which approaches, styles, and topics attract the attention of your audience, and you’ll be able to define your target market by matching what you can produce with what audiences want to consume.
Become insight-driven with analytics:
From website traffic to social media interactions, you need to get comfortable with analyzing your customer interactions to better define who you want to reach. As each social media platform has its own analytics tools, you’ll need to do some research to understand what their metrics mean and how you can leverage the information you have available to reach your ideal audience.
Need help with your social media marketing strategy? Look no further than WSIOMS, a leading social media marketing agency that can help your business content stand out from the digital noise. Contact WSIOMS for more information on social media marketing now.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or an adult; no one is really immune to trends and fads, especially mobile trends! Marketers, especially digital marketers, need to understand the difference between mobile trends that will be impactful to their operations and those pesky fleeting fads.
Fads and trends: From old-school to modern mobile trends
Many moons ago, the schoolyards were filled with marbles; then it was pogs, followed quickly by Pokémon cards and, of course, devil sticks. I remember having these things separately but also all at once, though the reality is each one likely had a really entertaining month or two and then ended up in a forgotten drawer next to the rest of the fads.
Like a schoolyard at recess, the digital world is filled with trends, fads and every kind of shiny, fool’s-gold type object you can imagine.
This is a problem for both marketers and consumers. Whether it’s an ad campaign or landing page that convinces you to buy a product you don’t want or need or a marketing technique that fails to deliver on its too-good-to-be-true promise, it’s often difficult to avoid the pitfalls of the Internet.
There are, however, new technologies and trends that can have a significant effect on both consumers and marketers, which means telling the difference between impactful mobile trends and fleeting fads is an important skill.
Measuring trends and fads with the Pokémon GO Barometer
Pokémon GO is the perfect example of how to tell the difference between impactful mobile trends and fleeting fads because it transcends whether or not you have an actual experience with it.
Pokémon GO is changing the future of local marketing. It is impacting how consumers are shopping, which in turn affects how local brands are marketing to consumers (a group you are part of, even if you’re not playing Pokémon GO).
Additionally, the technology behind Pokémon GO – augmented reality – has captured the minds of brands and marketers and opened up a whole new line of connection with consumers. Within the augmented reality world, consumers play a game; in the real world, those consumers enter brick-and-mortar stores to achieve certain goals in their game. It’s genius.
What’s the difference between impactful trends and fads?
The big question remains: how do you tell the difference between an impactful mobile trend and a fad? Truthfully, there are no hard and fast rules.
The best way to think about impactful trends and fads is to ask yourself whether the game, tactic or strategy in question has crossed over into areas of your life where it may not belong. For example, the Pokémon GO conversation makes sense in schoolyards, but it’s everywhere else, too: in bars, on the news, in offices and at dinner tables around the world.
Chances are you will fall victim to a fad, and that’s okay. We’re all trying to make a difference for our brand or company and, at the end of the day, doing something – anything – to try to move the needle forward is better than sitting on your hands. Many fads are effective for short periods of time, they just don’t work as long-term staples.
For example, infographics have been called a fad before (albeit a multiple-year fad). While infographics may very well be in the autumn of their lifespan, many brands and companies have achieved great success with infographic marketing (us included!).
A big part of fading fads is an intuition about how a certain thing will affect people and society, but another component of it is simply ignoring the label. If something is working for you and your brand, who cares what other people call it?
Impactful trends like Pokémon GO are definitely fun, but there is a more profound impact than the novelty value alone. It has changed the way we do digital and mobile marketing. If you can add some fun to your campaigns while buying in on impactful trends, you might improve the efficacy of your campaigns. For more information on mobile trends and help with your digital marketing strategy, contact WSI today.
