At this point in the game, we all know about search engine optimization (SEO). But you may to may not know about social media optimization (SMO). As we have moved from the world-wide-web to the Internet to the internet, the amount of websites is so prolific that search engine results are just not as reliable as they used to be. Many companies are now moving towards optimizing their social media sites because many consumers find it easier to find reliable search results on Facebook, Snap Chat, Pinterest or Twitter vs. a search engine.

SMO particularly lends itself to the world of higher education, where many prospective students prefer to learn about colleges in first-hand accounts rather than from traditional advertisements.

There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. And in today’s world of nonstop photos and content being delivered every second, it rings even more true. While many social media networks these days deliver visual content and videos, Instagram cuts through the clutter and focuses solely on high quality pictures and videos.

There is some method to the madness. Our brains love images. SearchEngineJournal reports 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual and those visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text.

In our last post, 5 Reasons to Love A/B Testing, we looked at five compelling reasons why A/B testing, or split testing as it is also known, can definitely help you convert your website visitors. But if you aren’t familiar with the process, it might be a little intimidating to you.

Do you remember when sending someone a video meant you downloaded it to a CD and popped it in the mailbox? Or worse, maybe you sent a VHS? YouTube changed all that about twelve years ago. Now we take for granted that anyone with a smartphone can share a video instantaneously with the click of a button.

The capabilities are incredible. An average Joe in Chicago can share a video that can go viral and be viewed millions of times by people around the world. A teenager in a small town can become famous overnight from posting videos of themselves singing or doing makeup tutorials. Your company could be reaching thousands of new consumers or clients by creating a free YouTube Channel.

A/B testing will help you convert your visitors into bona fide leads.

LinkedIn is the business professionals’ networking social media platform. It’s a great place to build your personal network, reconnect with colleagues and classmates, find and build relationships with influencers in your industry and discover companies and search for new career opportunities. The interface is similar to Facebook, and easy to use.

Lifewire says LinkedIn is like a traditional networking situation where you meet people and pass out business cards, except you are making “connections” with others and you all have your professional accomplishments laid out on your personal page. So less small talk, more business.

Learn how to implement inbound marketing methodology to generate leads and increase student applications.

Prospective Students, Proactive Students

Today’s consumers—including prospective students and their parents—don’t sit back and wait for information to come to them.

Think about it: are you more likely to hang on to and browse through fistfuls of brochures and direct-mail glossies that may or may not be offering anything of interest—or are you more likely to search online for the answers to your questions and the solution to your needs?

Welcome to the next installment of our Social Media Essentials 2017 series. Today we focus on Twitter, perhaps the most misunderstood of the social media platforms. Lifewire.com sums it up well when they report that Twitter is many different things to many different people. It’s used as a microblog, social messaging, a business tool, a news reporting service and a marketing tool.

Read on to discover exactly how you can use this valuable platform to promote your business.

One of the benefits to inbound marketing is that the converted leads generated tend to be a higher quality than those of traditional marketing. According to Marketing Sherpa, in the education field, whether you are generating traffic through emails, advertising or social media, typically 8% of website visitors on average are converted into applicants.

Posting live video for the entire world to see can be intimidating to say the least. But for marketers who know what they are doing, the benefits can be huge. Did you know that Facebook Live videos get 3x the views of other videos on Facebook? Yes, you read that right, triple the views.