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Social Media Advertising Channels Every Small Business Should Consider

August 26, 2018B2B Social Media, ROI in Social Media, Social Media, Social Media Marketing 0

Almost 90% of all small businesses use Facebook to advertise their goods and services, yet only about 60% of those companies say that the Facebook ads are accomplishing the intended business objectives. Since the cost of advertising on the popular social medium rose nearly 40% last year, it might be time for your company’s advertising and marketing personnel to consider using other social media in addition to Facebook, in order to achieve the best return on your marketing spend.

LinkedIn advertising

LinkedIn advertising and posting is a terrific bargain at present, because the medium has not severely refined its publishing process, as has Facebook, and this means you can still have a powerful organic reach on LinkedIn. Organic reach is the total number of potential customers who actually have a chance to see your post, without there being any kind of paid distribution factor involved. While Facebook has been consistently diminishing this reach in recent years, and making it harder to achieve a reasonable ROI, this is not yet true of LinkedIn. As long as someone in your business, or someone whom you’ve hired as an influencer, engages regularly with your audience, your posts will be near the top of targeted feeds.

But there is another factor which is just as compelling – LinkedIn is generally frequented by business professional types, and these individuals represent high-quality leads who are probably your ideal customer types. Compare that audience to the more generalized clientele on Facebook, which can be filled with all manner of users, many of whom have zero interest in products or services of any kind. It will also be worth your while to produce videos which are intended for the LinkedIn audience, where the prevalence of videos is not nearly at the Facebook level, and that means yours is more likely to be seen.

Twitter advertising

For some of the same reasons that LinkedIn has advantages over Facebook, so does Twitter. It costs less and can be said to have a more professional audience – but there’s one more reason which may not be as generally well known. Twitter now has a free tool called the Twitter Advanced Search, which allows you to discover the most used keywords by users from a specific location or region. This could tell you a lot about your competition for one thing, and it can also tell you what matters most to users in your area, because that’s what they’re tweeting about. You can gain a lot of very useful information with this tool, that will help you be more competitive, and will help you to provide what your customers really want.

Instagram advertising

Since Instagram is wholly owned by Facebook, it has the same kind of access to user information that its parent does, and that is a very large database of individuals indeed. Since Instagram is largely frequented by millenials and those who consider it a much more modern and cool social medium than its Facebook cousin, you’ll have access to an entirely new audience that Facebook might lack. During a six-month period of 2017, the number of advertisers on Instagram doubled, which is a clear indication that many business owners have discovered the value of accessing the different audience engendered by the Instagram social medium.

The last word

While advertising on Facebook is by no means a thing of the past, and it can still provide value, you would be prudent as a small business owner to consider the advantages offered by other social media as well. You can reach new audiences, achieve a more visible presence in the social media, and spend a lot less, by considering the possibilities offered by each of the major platforms.

Don’t try to do it yourself

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, your focus is on launching and scaling your business. If you don’t have the in-house personnel to execute your social media marketing strategies, hire a San Diego marketing firm to ensure that your objectives are achieved. Social media marketing is often more effective when left up to the experts who work in that arena on a daily basis. Contact us to learn more about how we can help grow your small business!

Posted by Shannon Goodell

Why Small Businesses Should Have A Mobile App

August 26, 2018Business, Business Tips, Mobile, Web Design 0

If you think that only the giant retailers bother to create their own business apps, there are a few facts which you should consider that might affect your thinking. For instance, approximately 85% of the time that users spend on their mobile phones is dedicated to operating a mobile app. That fact alone should make you reconsider, but there are other compelling reasons listed below. Don’t dismiss the idea simply because you lack the expertise in-house – a great San Diego web design agency like MySMN can provide you with the perfect app for your business.

You can be constantly visible to your customers

When your app is downloaded to users’ phones, it’s always there on the screen, even if the individual doesn’t intend to use it right at that moment. The fact of its presence on-screen causes it to be etched into the memory of the person for later recall and usage.

Availability of useful information

Any information posted on your mobile website is instantly available to users who have your app on their phones. Whatever information that you’d like your customers to know is right at their fingertips, ready for immediate retrieval. You’ll have a constant line of communication open to your customers and potential customers.

Convenience breeds loyalty

The more convenient you make it for your customers to interact with your business, the more loyal they will become. One example is in collecting and redeeming rewards or discounts that you offer. By providing customers with more reasons to do business with you, their loyalty should increase toward your company.

Building your brand is easier

Your own mobile app provides the perfect vehicle for conveying the kind of image and message that you want your company to project. You basically have a blank palette which you can populate with the core values and philosophy important to your business.

Increase brand recognition

Building on the ease of branding, you can increase the recognition factor of your brand by getting more users engaged with your brand, and on a more frequent basis. And of course, along with that frequency of engagement, you can expect increased sales and customer loyalty.

Better overall customer engagement

Since most customers would rather text a company than talk to a representative, having some kind of messaging platform will give them a method of contacting you which most of them prefer. It can improve your customer service, and defuse any issues before they develop into a negative.

Get a leg up on the competition

Since most small businesses don’t yet have their own apps, this would be one very beneficial way for you to get ahead of the game, by providing users with your own app. It will lend credibility to your company, and make you look more professional and modern.

Increasing customer loyalty

Probably the most critical reason to build your own app is to establish and improve on customer loyalty. There is such a flood of new marketing and advertising being used these days, that maintaining contact with your customer base has become a real challenge. That makes it more important than ever to make a real connection with customers, and mobile apps will help you do that by keeping your business right at your customers’ fingertips.

Want to learn more? Contact mobile app specialists, like MySMN, that will create a mobile app which fully embodies visual appeal, relevant content, rock-solid functionality, and your company’s critical branding message. Contact us today, and start increasing your mobile presence through a customized business app!

Posted by Shannon Goodell

10 Social Media Marketing Tips For Your Small Business

August 26, 2018B2B Social Media, Business, Social Media, Social Media Marketing 0

There is no question that the power of social media marketing is one of the most important single areas which every entrepreneur should be focusing on, in terms of reaching an intended audience. The sheer numbers of users involved should point that out clearly, but when you consider the potential for sharing among all those users, reachability can grow exponentially. Here are 10 recommendations for making good use of social media marketing to reach your target audience and grow your business.

Focus on your business objectives first

Your strategy with regard to the social media should be careful to avoid putting the cart (social media) before the horse (your business). Instead, consider what your top three business objectives are, and use the social media to drive those objectives, rather than the other way around. Don’t just try to achieve a presence on social media – use the specific platform frequented by your target audience to help you acquire 25% more leads this year, for instance.

Be authentic

People relate to other people more so than to a faceless business entity. That means you need to give your business a ‘face’, a personality. Emphasize the human aspect of your business by telling your story, and the story of your employees. By showing that your company personnel are involved in the community, or perhaps that you support a local worthy cause, you will connect much better with consumers you’re trying to reach.

Think Visual

It’s worth remembering that people’s attention spans tend to be very limited on the Internet, so if you don’t capture their interest immediately, they’ll probably move on to the next website. More than 50% of all people who visit Facebook watch at least one video every day, and that’s just one social media platform. Live Facebook videos are exploding in popularity because they’re such a great way to launch new products, provide background on your company, demonstrate ‘how-to’ use products, and make important announcements.

Content Is King

While blogs are valuable, your content shouldn’t stop there. You want to create content that’s tailored to the three stages of the funnel – awareness, evaluation, and conversion. Blogs and social media posts are great for awareness. However, you’ll want to craft effective content that work best for evaluation and conversion. This includes content such as case studies, customer/client testimonials, a coupon, webinar, software download, and more.

Visual content is super powerful, as well. If you can create an Infographic that has genuine value and appeal to your target audience, there’s no telling how much it might be shared around the globe. It’s imperative to determine your target audience and what type of content will be valuable to them.

Build Your LinkedIn

Almost all business owners would benefit by increasing their LinkedIn marketing. By promoting greater engagement of LinkedIn users with your company, you will undoubtedly see a boost in conversion rates and sales. Become an authority in your field, and reach out to potential customers with messages tailored to their specific needs. You can use Sales Navigator to build your target audience list, and then reach out to decision-makers with personalized messages.

Dominate the most appropriate platforms

It’s alright to have a presence on many of the social media platforms, but you really need to focus your attention on the one or two platforms where most of your target audience spends time, and where your business can fit right in. Twitter for instance, caters to an audience interested in breaking news and technology announcements, so if that fits your company, that’s where you should try to dominate.

Match your content type to the social media channel

When you’re crafting social media content, make sure it’s of the type which is well-suited to the platform you’re using, even if you have to create separate kinds of content for each platform. Tools like Stencil and Canva can help you produce content ideally suited to the platform.

Be Social

Starting a conversation in social media can be a terrific way to get people engaged and interacting with you. You should also be sharing content, re-tweeting posts that are interesting, and ask questions of your own which elicit responses from other users. You should also jump into conversations around your expertise, as well as nurture conversations you have started. By showing that you’re actively engaged yourself, your business can be seen as an involved, caring entity.

Have a Clear Goal When Advertising on Facebook

If Facebook is your platform of choice, or at least one of them, you’ll need to create some ads which fit well with it. The tremendous ability of Facebook to target a specific audience can lead you to the success you crave, but only if you’ve pre-determined what you’re trying to achieve, and have crafted your ads accordingly.

Don’t try to do it yourself

Posted by Shannon Goodell

It May Be Time For Your Business Website To Be Updated

August 26, 2018Business, Business Tips, Web Design 0

Your website does something that no single employee or any group of employees could possibly do – it promotes your business 24 hours a day to all Internet users. Business website design in San Diego needs to reflect the changing attitudes and needs of users, rather than remaining static for long periods of time. Below are some reasons why you might want to avail yourself of the skills and knowledge provided by a San Diego website design company, to keep your site fresh and relevant. After reading why it’s highly beneficial to keep your site current, you’ll have no trouble finding a good firm for outstanding web design in San Diego.

Your site has become outdated

The tools, themes, and technology used to build website change every few months, and users’ tastes change right along with them. A site that’s even two years old probably can’t match up well with more current ones, in terms of loading speed, functionality, and aesthetic appeal. You may also be missing out on some of the newest factors being evaluated by search engines for site ranking.

Your site no longer reflects your brand adequately

If your company has undergone any kind of shift in philosophy recently, and your branding message has been changed, this should be reflected on your website. For your customers and potential customers, your branding message is whatever is conveyed through your website, so your site should be synchronized with the new company outlook.

The right clients are not attracted to your site

Over time, it can easily happen that your site no longer attracts the kind of target audience you’re looking for, i.e. those who are most likely to purchase from you. There are a number of reasons why this might happen, but the first places to look for specific customer appeal are the content on your site, and any galleries or images shown.

Not mobile-friendly

Since there are now more mobile users than desktop users browsing the Internet, it’s an absolute must that your site is displayed clearly and intelligently on mobile devices. If a user has to scroll left, right, up, and down just to read a page of content, you’ll probably be losing out on a huge segment of your market.

Slow load speed

If the pages of your site load too slowly, it might well prompt a user to abandon and visit another site. Pages might load slowly because of numerous images or images that are too large, an outdated theme, or possibly inadequate powering from your host provider.

Inadequate calls-to-action

Without a doubt, your site needs one or more calls to action, but they have to be placed optimally, in locations right after you’ve gotten the user’s attention, and you’ve piqued their curiosity to find out more.

Your site needs more effective, updated content

While a good-looking site might initially attract visitors, it’s great content that keeps them there. Most users are looking for relevant and useful information from a site, not visual appeal. There are tools you can use to determine which kind of content holds user attention, and you should use this information to include more effective, updated content on your site.

New apps and integrations

New and useful apps emerge daily on the Internet, and users have come to expect having all that capability at their fingertips. Then too, your business could be helped significantly by including more back-end integrations with processes such as order fulfillment and tracking, and CRM. It’s worth the time and effort to include these capabilities both for users and for yourself.

This may all sound a little overwhelming, but you don’t have to go it alone. Take advantage of the expertise of the best website design company in the area, and contact MySMN for great San Diego web design. In addition to helping you with improved content, SEO, and functionality, MySMN also has the reputation for being a responsive website design company, so you’ll be sure to capture the mobile market. Contact us to learn how we can help your business!

Posted by Patrick

Local SEO Best Practices for Small Businesses in San Diego

May 19, 2017Business Tips, Content Marketing, SEO 0

When running a small business in today’s digital age, it’s no secret that much of your marketing efforts will rely on the Internet. With so many people online, and using the web to research businesses and read product and service reviews, it’s extra important to employ a few local SEO best practices when implementing your digital marketing strategy

Posted by Patrick

Social Media ROI Stats and Struggles

May 19, 2017Uncategorized 0

One of the biggest struggles for marketers in this digital age is the ability to successfully measure social media ROI. This is an issue for many marketers because it’s truly difficult to measure the financial value of all that social media provides. Increasingly, marketers are straying away from measuring ROI and showing an increase in revenue and sales when reporting success. Rather, they value things such as engagement: reactions, shares, comments, and page follows.

While 65% of managers believe that social ROI is important, 87% do not even try to measure it. This leaves 77% of CEOs believing that marketers are not talking about what really matters most to them: sales. So, when it comes to social media marketing and ROI, what matters most? Is it being able to measure financial gains, or is it the ability to show growth, engagement and an actively involved community that values your content and message via social media?

As a San Diego website design and search engine optimization firm, we can see how the value of measuring ROI would be important to most CEOs and marketing managers. Our social media marketing department also struggles with this question, as there is a delicate balance to be had when showing results. We want to highlight the growth and engagement of a successful social media following, however, there are limitations to proving that an increase in revenues is directly correlated with a specific social media campaign.

Just the same, here are some general—overall statistics surrounding social media ROI across all businesses and industries when done correctly. Companies who have a well-established social media presence have seen a 9% increase in revenues, are 26% more profitable than their competitors, and have a 12% higher market value. The key factor in these stats, is the fact that these are well-established social media platforms that are successful both in terms of engagement as well as ROI. In order for this to happen, it simply takes time. Social media may not translate into ROI for a company right away, but if they put in the time, effort, and energy into building a strong presence, it most certainly can benefit the company in terms of ROI in the long-run.

So how should marketers approach the topic of measuring social media ROI? Marketing managers and CEOs alike should look at entering the social media realm as a necessity in this day in age, as well as an investment that (if done properly) will result in a profitable return. However, like with most investments, it is going to take some time to see the fruits of one’s labor. It is going to take financial and time investments to build a following over social media. However, once you have that following, it’s an investment that will continue to bear profitable rewards and opportunities for years to come as long as it is upkept.

Would you like some help growing your social following for the future success of your business? Our social media marketing experts would love to help grow your brand and following over social media. For more information, or a detailed quote, call (619) 291-8181 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Patrick

Spread the LOVE this Valentine’s Day–5 expert tips for content marketing

May 19, 2017Content Marketing 0

While it may feel like we just finished decking the halls, Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us, and we should all be adjusting our marketing efforts accordingly. Especially if we want to make the most out of this annual celebration. And with that, we’re gifting you 5 of our most useful pieces of content marketing advice this Valentine’s Day, so that your business will become as successful as possible.

Valentine Themed Email Blast

This is the perfect holiday for a custom designed Valentine’s Day e-card/email blast. Your clients/customers will love it, and you only need to send them out a few days ahead of time for maximum effectiveness. You could even set these to blast on Valentine’s Day, depending upon your industry.

Valentine Themed Custom Content

For content that you can update and reuse from one year to the next, it’s incredibly resourceful to indulge in creating some custom holiday themed content surrounding all major U.S. and audience relevant holidays. Valentine’s Day is no exception. You will want your content to focus on celebrating a certain aspect of a client/customer you admire, and to make them feel special during this holiday of celebrating love. Make your clients feel loved, and you’ll be sure to see some positive results in your ROI.

Create a Holiday Themed Microsite

By creating a separate microsite (or landing page) with a holiday theme, you’re not only adding space to share company relevant content surrounding Valentine’s Day that your following will likely enjoy; you’re also maximizing upon your SEO potential. If you’re not sure where to start, you may want to call your local San Diego website design firm to help.

Valentine’s Day Social Media Campaign

You will certainly want to create a social media campaign surrounding Valentine’s Day. You could highlight a client or customer you like, and say a bit about why. You could share your Valentine’s Day themed custom content, such as custom graphics and holiday themed blog posts. You could also tweet sweet messages that thank your customers/clients–making them feel special. Notify your following of any special holiday sales or promotions, and give them something of value that they find useful this time of year.

Spread the Love

To really make your clients/customers feel special, you could write a love story highlighting some of your favorite clients/customers, what they do, and why you appreciate them. You could also send out love from your employees to your clients/customers with a custom video or photo of your staff. Or you could simply share industry advice, and entitle it something to do with Valentine’s Day love from experts in your industry.

Any good search engine optimization firm can tell you that the following actions will not only give you a boost in your SEO efforts, but also an increase in ROI. For more information, or a detailed quote, call (619) 291-8181 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Patrick

5 Social Media Trends We’re Excited to See in 2017

May 19, 2017Advertising, Business Tips, Content Marketing, Social Good, Social Media, Social Media for Consumer Products, Uncategorized 0

2017 is here, and that means there are sure to be a whole slew of brand new technologies, trends and innovative ways in which marketers will be promoting their business this year. We’ve scoured the web to find out more in terms of what we’re to expect this year, and we’ve found some exciting new trends that we’d love to share with you so that you too are in the loop with the latest and greatest in digital marketing to date.

AI Lenses for Instagram and Facebook

Much like the Snapchat filters, Instagram and Facebook are now working on AI Lenses for profile pictures that are sure to rival the ever-popular filters on Snapchat, according to Sprout Social. Thanks to the popular Snapchat stories, this trend isn’t going away anytime soon, and we should be seeing much more of it overall social media platforms this year.

More Growth for Snapchat

Last year Snapchat experienced an enormous amount of growth to reach a total of 150 million daily users in 2016, with 41% of US adults aged 18-34 being users.

Automation Turns into Social Media Management

Businesses are starting to see the value in real-time posting and engagement for their social media platforms across the board. This is showing business owners and marketers alike that there is much more value in hiring a social media management firm to actively manage all social media accounts in more real-time than setting up everything with automation, so that it is basically on auto-pilot. Opportunities for reaching more people, getting in on what’s most current, trending and up to date, and being more responsive to followers in real-time is going to be essential in 2017.

Paid Content is King

Navigating the ever-changing algorithms over Facebook and Instagram have forced marketers into boosting and promoting content in order to reach more people. This trend isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. If businesses want to reach more people, advertising their content over platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are going to be essential. It will also help to pair this effort with the expertise of a local search engine optimization firm to reach even more people over the Internet, and gain maximum exposure for not only your content, but your company website as well.

Social Media Expertise Demand at an All-Time High

Nine out of ten companies currently report that their employees lack the skill sets needed to effectively execute social media management and marketing in an overall effective way. This is going to push companies to start considering outsourcing their social media management to an experienced marketing firm. This will save companies time, and even money when it comes to managing their social media efforts in a manner that will not only drive sales, leads and ROI, but build a loyal following that is sure to stick with them for years to come.

Social media is constantly changing, which is also changing the way that businesses must market themselves. Gone will be the days of in-house marketing if companies truly want to get an edge above their competition and become power houses over social media and the Internet. For more information, or a detailed quote, call (619) 291-8181 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Patrick

7 Ways to Use Instagram for Your Small Business

May 19, 2017Advertising, Business Tips, Social Media, Socially Connected, Strategic Planning, Strategy 0

Photos, graphics and videos grab people’s attention. If you want to be a savvy marketer, it makes sense to learn how to make the most of Instagram to find your target audience, interact with them and sell to them.

Here is a look at 7 effective ways to use the power of Instagram for your small business.

Use Engaging Content

There is so much noise online, it can be hard to get noticed. The best way to stand out is with images and videos that are high quality, colorful and entertaining.

Give a behind-the-scenes look at your business with funny company photos highlighting employees and customers with your products.

Interact with Your Audience

You want to build a relationship with people online. Getting faithful followers makes the best use of Instagram for your small business.

Three good ways to get people engaged with your Instagram account are:

Post daily. People love to interact with you. The more content you post, the greater incentive they have to check back. Ask questions in your posts to get a conversation going.
Comment on customer posts regularly. The more you comment on the photos they post, the more connected they feel toward your product and service.
Repost regularly. By reposting your customers’ photos, you make them feel important.

Start a Photo Contest

People love contests. Since over half of your customers are using smartphones and tablets, it is easy for them to take photos. Combine these two facts to drive customer engagement.

It works because people will need to follow your account in order to enter the contest and find out if they win. Make it a requirement that they “regram” the contest image in order to enter.

Learn the Art of #Hashtags

The creative use of hashtags can get your images shared all over the web. Use the symbol # in front of any word or phrase, without spaces between words. They provide a way to filter and categorize posts on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Be creative when you decide on a hashtag. The more imaginative it is, the greater the chance that followers will post their own on your company photos. Check out how effective they are by using the analytics feature to track your hashtags.

Use the Location Feature

Shoppers use mobiles even while in your brick and mortar store. By creating a location tag for your company, you let them post when they are checking out your products and what they are buying. This is an under-utilized method of marketing with Instagram for your small business.

Create Event Tags

At your next sale or an industry gathering, create an event tag. It notifies your followers that something special is going on. Using the tag, they can easily share it with friends and family. Ask people at the event to take a photo of their favorite moments and post them.

Post Videos

These don’t have to be professional. Use your smartphone to capture an aspect of your business or product. Aim for a 15-second video that is filter-enabled. Then be sure to embed your Instagram video in your blog or your website.

Instagram can help you build your brand and sell your products and services. But figuring it out can be complicated and take time. If you’d like some professional guidance, we can help. We are the go-to experts for using Instagram for your small business in San Diego.

Posted by Patrick

How to Boost Your Profits and Leads In 2016

May 19, 2017Advertising, Business Tips, Strategic Planning, Strategy 0

Growing a small business may seem like a simple process, but that’s not always the case. The logistics may seem simple, yet it’s often times challenging for entrepreneurs to accomplish the growth they want on their own. With that being said, many entrepreneurs seek extra support—such as a coach or marketing team—to inspire them and build a marketing strategy designed to reach their goals and eliminate the hurdles that arise along the way. Whether it’s a coach you seek, or some guidance in growing your business in terms of profits and leads, we’ve highlighted three important methods for increasing profits and leads in 2016.

Hone your unique selling proposition

To bring in more leads and conversions, hone your unique selling proposition. Aim to be better, and aim to be unique. Using your imagination and creativity can distinguish your enterprise from competitors in the market. Often times companies within mature industries struggle to differentiate their company from the vast ocean of big players in the market, as everyone is using their marketing skills to convey many of the same strengths. Concentrating on what you do well, while keeping it well-defined and unique, can help set yourself apart from the crowd. It’s also important to convey this in an effective way to potential clients.

Once you’ve determined the lead generation proposition relevant for your market, identify the realistic amount of leads you’d like to bring in each month. This strategy may be outlined in an activity map or action plan. For instance, if you’d like to bring in 20 leads using telemarketing each month, list all of the actions required (or mini goals) leading up to the end goal of 20 new leads. This may involve determining the number of dials required weekly (if you’re doing it on your own), or outsourcing your marketing efforts for a specified number of hours. Once you’ve nailed down your plan, evaluate the performance of it periodically and make adjustments as needed.

Get into your clients’ shoes

Empathize with your client in an effort to understand their frustrations, fears, wants and aspirations. Your communication (written or verbal) in your lead generation techniques should target how your product or services will help alleviate your client’s fears and frustrations, while assisting them in reaching their desired end results.

Open new doors with your proposition

Use your proposition of differentiation to open new doors and leads with three simple steps. First, convert your prospects into clients by improving the degree of trust they place in you. Second, turn your customers into enthused fans by exceeding their expectations. Third, leverage your connections with your present clients to generate new leads by requesting referrals and introductions with other potential clients. When others know how well you’re able to handle the needs of your clients/customers, and have faith in you to deliver in a consistent manner, they’ll be much more likely to try your services and recommend them to their friends, family and business acquaintances.

Not everyone holds the skill set of bringing in referrals and introductions, or the notion of how to differentiate their company. As soon as you’re able to establish and communicate what it is that you do best, you’re likely to start seeing an increase in profits and leads. If you’d like some more advice on how to do this, or would like to outsource your marketing efforts to lead generation/profit boosting experts, we’d be happy to help.

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