Social Media Seen Through Our Expert’s Eyes…

How Can I Build My Online Presence?

Social media has increased in popularity since its humble beginnings in the late 1990s. With the introduction of platforms such as Myspace in the early 2000s, social media has evolved into a greater digital universe than ever imagined. Now, social media is one of the primary ways to engage with customers and potential customers, making it a crucial part of your marketing strategy to ensure the success of your brand.

You probably know that building your virtual presence online takes more thought and planning than it may appear. Users can engage directly, helping you develop a stronger relationship with them and a better understanding of what they want or expect from you. As you may have experienced, they also expect replies     

Trying to be on top of the latest trends and crafting fun, meaningful messages for your viewers can be overwhelming. Luckily, we have Ashley Williams on staff, our very own digital media specialist. She creates customized strategies that are right for your brand, working side-by-side with you to ensure she meets your goals and expectations. 

Some of her strategies are:

  • Creating interesting social media postings (crafted for your target audiences)
  • Administering content across all social media platforms
  • Monitoring posts results
  • Organizing results/analyzing data
  • Developing social media and display network paid ads
  • Optimizing company social media pages                                                          

We decided to gain more insight by asking Ashley a few questions.


How do I get more followers?

Building a following on social media takes time, consistency, and creativity. Every company’s audience is different, and you must keep that in mind when growing your platform.

What are some techniques I can use to  hold my audience’s attention?

One technique to hold your audience’s attention is to post consistently. Create a content schedule with a detailed outline of your ideas, keeping your audience in mind. Also, less text is more in most cases. Most viewers want to read the main points of your posts on social media, so be quick and straight to the point. 

How often should I post?

You have to consider a few things when posting on social media. First, what kind of business do you have, and what information are you trying to put forth? Second, what platform are you posting on? These are just a couple of questions we use as a guide when advising on how often you should post. As a general guideline, I recommend posting at least once a week to get started. 

Here is a handy list based on the various platforms:

  • Instagram: Post between 3 and 5 times per week
  • Instagram stories: Post two times per day
  • Facebook: Post between 1 to 2 times per day
  • X (Twitter): Post between 2 and 3 times per day

How do I know when to pay for ads or to boost my post?

Even though paying for ads or boosting your posts seem similar, they have a lot of differences. Boosting your post is when you want to introduce more people to a specific post that already has good exposure and success. Paid ads, however, are for reaching a wider group of people and converting visitors to your page or website by driving traffic there.

What makes a successful paid marketing campaign?

Sometimes it’s as simple as targeting your customer demographics, posting consistently, and frequently staying engaged with them to increase exposure. There is a lot of thought in setting a campaign up. There is also a lot of babysitting and tweaking along the way to ensure success. I’d say I learn another nuance every time we run one.

Are paid ads worth the investment?

Paying for social media advertising allows you to extend your messages inexpensively compared to other kinds of advertising, making it an overall great value for growing your company’s brand awareness or selling a product, event, or service.

What if I need help with my social media or have questions?

The world of social media can be very intimidating and overwhelming at times, especially since social media is not one size fits all. Here at VIA, we will make your experience much more straightforward. Contact us today, and we will help you reach your goals!

Why Should You Make the Switch to Google Analytics 4?

Let’s start with the basics.


GAnalytics At Via Marketing

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics may sound intimidating and overwhelming, but it’s worth it and a helpful tool in your toolbox.

This data-collecting service provides statistics and is an essential search engine optimization and marketing tool. The software is used to track website performance and collect visitor insights.

It helps organizations determine the top sources of user traffic, gauge the success of their marketing activities and campaigns, track goal completions, discover patterns and trends in user engagement, and get other visitor information, such as demographics.


What are Universal Analytics (UA) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?

Why is Google Analytics forcing the switch?

What is  google analytics?

In 2012, during a much simpler time, Google introduced Universal Analytics. Even though it doesn’t seem that long ago, the only way you could measure data was on a desktop and with cookies. Unfortunately, these are not the cookies you eat.

They collect data to provide a more personalized experience for visitors. There are two different types: first-party and third-party cookies. Google recently announced the elimination of third-party cookies, causing companies to adjust.


The old method of measuring data from cookies is quickly becoming obsolete. Conversely, Google built the new Google Analytics 4 to operate across platforms, not rely only on cookies, and use an event-based data model to deliver user-friendly measurements.


Event-based data tracks interactions between users and your website. An event is any action that occurs within a digital touchpoint, such as a mobile app, email, CRM, or webpage. User attributes such as location, device, language, mobile number, etc., are also recorded. 


Google Analytics 4 also provides a lot of significant new improvements while making the service more user-friendly.

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Improvements include:

  1. Increasing privacy protection and control.
  2. Tracking both websites and apps is all in the same place.
  3. Tracking primary events automatically, such as scrolling, outbound link clicks, document clicks, and website searches.
  4. Improving visualization of the consumer’s journey and a deeper understanding of how users navigate your website.
  5. Exporting complex raw data for free to BigQuery, a fully managed enterprise data warehouse that helps you manage and analyze your data with built-in features like machine learning, geospatial analysis, and business intelligence.
  6. Reviewing your entire tracking setup to ensure you achieve your overall goals.

When-should-you-make-the-switch

How soon do you need to make the switch for your business?

As of July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics software will no longer process data. You can access previously processed data in the standard software for at least six months. However, recent data will only flow into the new software. If you don’t have a previously created account, you have nothing to worry about; new accounts will open using the newly updated software.

Even though Google Analytics 4 is supposed to be more user-friendly, it has a learning curve for new users. The setup is quite different, and it introduces new terminology and features to help you better understand your target audience and increase your overall sales. Regarding your monthly Google ad reports, you will still receive those, but they will look slightly different.


What if you need help transferring over or if you have further questions?

Google Analytics 4 could provide the insight you need to be one step ahead of your competition. VIA Marketing will help ensure smooth, effortless transitions and transfers the latest marketing analytic tools to clients.

Even if you don’t currently use any analytic tool, consider investing in the software to ensure you get all the benefits you have yet to experience. Let us help keep your business in pace with technology. 

reCAPTCHA Updates are Contributing to Contact Form Problems and Websites Taking Too Long to Load.


Here’s what helps.


First, what is a reCAPTCHA?  

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Google reCAPTCHA is a free Google tool that protects website forms from malicious users and spam. It helps determine whether the person completing your form is a human or a robot.

Why does it deny some website submissions?

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Generally, it takes time for the reCAPTCHA API to load and verify your site’s account. APIs allow two software components to talk with each other using a set of definitions and protocols. reCAPTCHA API keeps track and categorizes users as either high-risk or low-risk and later stores that information for analysis.

Whether your form works may depend on whether reCAPTCHA is wholly loaded; an entire library needs to load to check the users of your website forms. Here at VIA, load times are improved by delaying the release of the reCAPTCHA scripts until they are needed. In other words, when the user clicks on a form field, the reCAPTCHA verification is only then called.

Good-SEO-With-Short-Load-Times

Why are load times beneficial?

  • For search engine optimization. Many search engines prioritize sites with fast load times as part of good UX (user experience). 
  • To close the sale. Say you run an e-commerce site, and a customer in a hurry comes to the site to buy something. They go to your site only to be greeted with a white screen for five seconds. Of course, they give up and decide to purchase somewhere else. In 6 seconds, the page would have loaded, and you would have made that sale. 

It’s easy to see why loading reCAPTCHA scripts on an as-needed basis is so important. Making sure your forms work well is crucial to security, user experience, and brand reputation. 

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What should you do when the form denies your customer?

One of your site users fills out your contact form wanting to contact you. They then press submit on their form. Darn… An error message shows through to give you a clue.

There are three reasons your customer could face a denial. 

  • Wrong codes. The programmer may have entered the wrong codes when setting up your reCAPTCHA. Google uses a site key code and a secret key code. These codes make sure Google is connecting correctly and securely. If the site key is wrong, the reCAPTCHA symbol in the bottom right will show the error message: “Invalid site key.” If the “Secret key code” is incorrect, you will not get an error message. Let the Web Developer of your marketing company know, and they’ll get it fixed for you.
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  • The user is suspicious. When reRECAPTCHA thinks someone is too suspicious, you will get an error message saying the reCAPTCHA standards are not met. Have your customer sign into their Google account and try again. Spam bots don’t have Google accounts, so signing in increases the likelihood their message will be accepted. Or ask them to use an Incognito window on their browser.
  • Duplicate message error. This means they probably struggled with the submission and tried to submit the exact text more than once. The system sees this as an action a Bot would use and denies the user in its mission to prevent spam. Ask your customer to change their message a little and try to submit it again.

Please let us know if you have questions or need help securing your reCAPTCHA in our contact form.


Sources: 

Google on Recaptcha

Detailed Code implementation

Page Load Speed and SEO