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3 ways brands can build a more diverse and inclusive social media strategy

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By Ben Abraham

With digital video shorts and reels, there is tremendous opportunity to inspire new audiences that may not have resonated with certain brands.

Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts have ushered a new era for social entertainment over recent years, and the trend of bite-sized, digestible video isn’t going away anytime soon. Approximately 54% of people demand more video content on top of what they already consume, while viewers claim they retain 95% of a message when obtained via video. Video content continues to empower influencers and brands alike to gain connections with audiences, so when we think about supply we also have to think about the representational ramifications.

As audiences become more willing to become engaged in communities and act as brand advocates, there is tremendous opportunity to inspire new audiences that may not have resonated with certain brands, products, or services in the past. When it comes to diversity and representation within content, a recent survey found that 94% of Gen Z consumers expect companies to take a stand on important social issues.

Meaningful connections and brand loyalty can be positively impacted as a direct result of authentic and diverse storytelling that truly represents our modern world. With this new era of content creation comes the responsibility to create diverse stories in short form—which is a task that many seem to find easier said than done.

Putting principle into practice

From a business perspective, it comes down to dollars and cents. Approximately 69% percent of brands with representation initiatives saw an average stock gain, which means prioritizing diverse voices impacts a brand’s bottom line. At the same time, these brands appeal to a wider range of intersectional audiences, which can deliver measurable and profitable benefits.

From a human interest perspective, consumers are constantly seeking purchasing opportunities (both intentionally and unintentionally) that align with their core beliefs and values. Diverse and inclusive video content allows purposeful brands to build reliable retention mechanisms and position themselves for long-lasting relationships with consumers that align with those key messages and values.

Implementing inclusive content is complex and nuanced. However, making a difference through diverse content, as well as implementing the right stepping stones, affects many organizational facets, both internal and external. Here are three best practices.

Diverse teams equal diverse content

Ensuring a diverse cast is in front of the camera as well as behind the camera is imperative to producing meaningful, diverse storytelling content. In addition to diverse casts when producing content, building internal reviews and concept development teams that consist of as many different perspectives and historically excluded voices as possible can help brands produce more inclusive work.

When it comes to the ideation and validation of creative directions, hiring outside consultants from non-profit organizations or public interest groups can also help drive more inclusive messaging in an authentic way. When producing content, teams can often feel ill-equipped to approach launches that consist of different communities and lived experiences in which they may not have a foundational background. It’s important to bring on creators and partners who can give guidance on projects. By tapping into broader networks to connect to true experts that help tell a better story, you can avoid the pitfalls of producing work that does not quite hit the mark.

Empower diverse decision-makers

Due diligence is key when formulating plans to get to know the audiences your organization strives to represent and connect with—but the degrees of representation have to go deeper. In today’s world, it’s far too common to see a demand for content that represents a particular group that isn’t present on a leadership team. Promoting leaders that drive the conversation in the ideation and creative direction of initiatives, as well as all facets of campaigns including promotions, publicity, and digital media assets, can make a massive difference toward achieving diverse content creation goals.

Through this action, companies can move effectively beyond serving as allies and into accomplice terminology to effectively propel action. Decision-makers should continue to make recommendations and have influence that allows the right people to flourish and make additional decisions to implement diverse storytelling.

Take nuance into account

Thinking beyond the binary of your lived experience, as well as beyond the moment, can aid in making video content more diverse. This nuance can come in many forms. It demonstrates that the development and production team either spoke to or has members of historically excluded communities that have been ingrained in the development of a piece of video content.

Looking at, for examples, the LGBTQIA+ community, many brands only consider their representation doing Pride Month in June, when this group should be represented and considered throughout the year. Actions such as implementing pride initiatives year-round show that brands actually walk the walk by embodying values consistently as opposed to taking notice of a trending hashtag or a single moment in time. Organizations should not be speaking on behalf of underrepresented communities if they do not have the structural and policy infrastructure in place to support these communities.

Bottom line: It’s crucial to look at internal processes and external failures to effectively create an ecosystem of truly diverse video storytelling. Rather than approaching diversity from a clout-chasing perspective, an intersectional approach to your business’s work creates a positive emotional connection with target audiences, drives a proof-positive financial advantage in differentiation strategies, and is an accurate reflection of the realities and truths of the world we live in today. Implementing more diverse storytelling in video content shouldn’t be a rush job. Brands must take the time to craft an effective and meaningfully intersectional approach to the ever-evolving journey in front of and behind the camera lens. Learning, doing, making mistakes, and recovering is all a part of that ever-evolving journey.

Feature Image Credit: Nosyrevy/Getty Images; nadia_bormotova/Getty Images

By Ben Abraham

Ben Abraham is senior brand manager for Storyblocks.

Sourced from Fast Company

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8 Essential Tips for Optimising Content Across Every Social Platform

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By Ian Carroll

Social media marketing may seem straightforward enough, but unless your content is optimised, your campaigns may prove fruitless. Creating killer content that connects with as wide an audience as possible requires careful thought.

Firstly, you’ll need a defined tone of voice and a firm handle on your brand’s core values. Next, you’ll need to consider the content you’re aiming to put out there and which channels are most viable for your goals.

Looking for some inspiration on how to optimise content across key social media platforms? Read on for our roundup of the most important tips to remember. 

1. Capitalise on Video Content

Social media provides the perfect platform for sharing all manner of mixed media. However, it’s the appetite for short-form video content that has exploded in recent years. Video content is particularly effective when it comes to lead generation. Furthermore, short-form videos shine on social media platforms, where impatient users may only have moments to scan for the latest content.

The good news for content creators is that short-form videos don’t require much technical ability to produce and publish. Pretty much every major social platform allows users to upload videos, with big hitters like Facebook and Instagram supporting live streaming. 

2. Embrace User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) and social media go hand in hand. In fact, you can quickly bolster your social media presence by encouraging followers to create and share photos, videos, memes, and more.

The benefits of encouraging user-generated content are obvious. For starters, you don’t have to invest time and effort into creating content yourself. Furthermore, UGC is geared specifically to your brand and curated by an enthusiastic audience. 

3. Build Brand Loyalty with Interactive Content

Interactive content is not only more likely to engage your followers, but it will also bolster your standing in the eyes of social media crawlers. If your content is receiving considerable likes and comments, it’s more likely to be looked upon favourably by crawlers. The best way to generate an enthusiastic response is to make your content as interactive as possible.

Creating interactive content isn’t that difficult. You can keep things simple with polls and quizzes, or instead roll out a promotion that pushes for shares and likes. If you’re feeling adventurous, schedule a live stream or arrange a Q&A session with industry experts. 

4. Demonstrate Your Industry Insights

If you’re looking to engage your audience, showcasing an intimate knowledge of industry trends is a sure-fire way to do so. Demonstrating that you’re an authority in your chosen industry won’t just endear you to your audience, it will also bolster your reputation as a real authority in your chosen field.

You may already have the resource in place to focus on trend forecasts and editorial pieces. If not, think about inviting guest bloggers and creators to produce one-off pieces for your social platforms. Focus on seasonal trends and important industry calendar dates.

There’s no point investing in a premium piece of content if you publish it days or weeks after your competitors. Even if users aren’t immediately convinced to buy your goods or services, there’s a good chance they’ll keep coming back for more first-rate posts and content. 

5. Take the Time to Respond to Comments

Taking the time to read and respond to comments on your social platforms is a relatively easy thing to do. Furthermore, it’s a successful way of engaging with your audience and fostering a sense of brand loyalty.

In many ways, social media has supplanted conventional customer service avenues. Nowadays, consumers choose to engage with the brands they buy directly over social media, rather than wait days for a response via email.

Neglecting queries on your social media channels is something to avoid. It not only leaves the user posting the query feeling disgruntled, but it can also damage your broader reputation. Engaging with user comments demonstrates that you’re a responsible business that cares about the concerns of its customers. 

6. Present the Human Side of the Operation

Some brands create social media platforms and leave them largely devoid of content. Social channels present a unique branding opportunity, so ditch the corporate mentality and use them to show the human face of your organisation.

The content you post should be accessible and informal, granting your audience an insight into the inner workings of your business. To keep it personable, consider rotating social media managers regularly.

It’s a good idea to introduce followers to a varied mixture of personalities, rather than a single authoritative voice. You can also think about uploading behind the scenes videos of your workplace itself. If you have more resources at your disposal, a regular schedule of podcasts or video programming is also something to consider. 

7. Establish a Clear Tone of Voice

It’s easy to lean heavily on humour when creating content for social media channels. While a light-hearted tone is all well and good when posting memes, you’ll need to rethink your angle when promoting brand values.

Even if you’ve established a corporate online presence already, your social channels are where you can truly find your brand’s tone of voice. You’re free to have fun with things, but just remember to be consistent. Your tone of voice is what encapsulates your brand’s personality and core values. 

8. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Likes and Shares

Social media makes networking easier than ever. For fledgling brands, this makes building a brand and establishing connections straightforward. Asking for a like, share, or follow via a social media platform isn’t frowned upon. In fact, it’s par for the course.

Make asking for a like or share standard practice when publishing a new piece of content. This will ensure your content gets seen by as many people as possible and serves as an effortless strategy for lead generation. 

Strengthen Your Social Media Strategy with Optimised Content

By now, you should have a clearer idea of the work involved in optimising content for social media campaigns. If you’re looking to produce punchy, captivating content, short-form video is the way to go.

You can take the further strain off content creators by encouraging your followers to produce user-generated content. Folding interactive content into your strategy is another guaranteed way to maintain engagement with your audience.

It’s also crucial you don’t neglect your social audience. If you’re inviting queries from followers, make sure they’re being read and responded to. Social channels can also be used to give your audiences a glimpse behind the scenes. Think about posting Q&As or candid videos to present the human side of your operation.

Finally, make sure you’re capitalising on potential leads. There’s a huge audience out there to engage with via social media. Asking for likes, shares, and tags is standard practice in social media circles. 

By Ian Carroll

Ian Carroll is the owner of Digital Funnel, a Digital Marketing agency that specializes in SEO in Cork and SEO in Dublin alongside Web Design. Ian and his team have helped numerous local businesses increase their online presence.

 

 

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Where Your Social Media Strategy Needs A Reboot

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By Stephanie Burns.

Your brand likely has room for improvement on the social media front. Contrary to popular belief, your social media pages are not for boasting testimonials, showing off new products with their descriptions, or selling on every post. It’s okay if that’s what you’ve been doing, because we haven’t really had examples of too many businesses who are playing the social media game in the right way. Your new motto needs to be: ‘value first, sell second.’ Think of your social media pages as that one of your salespeople that makes friends with everyone first, then casually mentions what they’re selling when it feels appropriate.

Yes when, and only when, it feels appropriate. No, this doesn’t mean that you’re leaving money on the table or confusing followers. This means that you’re building a loyal brand. That means you are always giving value first, which gives potential customers an incentive to follow your page.  Once you can get their attention and prove how you can help them, they will trust you, and then buy from you. It’s really that simple. Here’s how to do a thorough reboot to make sure you’re doing everything you can to build trust first.

1. Offer Sneak Peeks Of Value 

Just like items at a grocery store get sold when there are free samples, the best products and programs aren’t entirely coveted. Think of it this way: imagine that you have an online course that’s about building a viral TikTok strategy. You don’t get customers to buy by solely talking about what they’ll get from the course. You do, however, get customers to buy by sharing a few of the entry-level tips on your social media, letting them apply them, and letting them get the results. Their thought process will be: “If their free content helped me this much, I can only imagine how much their paid content will.”

This is an approach that Gee Bryant, the founder and CEO of X28 Fitness, lives by.  He’s self-educated on the social media front, and found that offering value through tutorials of key workouts on his company’s instagram page, have really paid off.

“Not only does this content strategy show potential participants what they get from working with us, but it fosters community. It creates something that current participants can follow along with and show up for. Our goal is to excite anyone who sees the content so much that they’re not satisfied with just a quick 20 second clip of these groundbreaking exercises.”

2. Give The Vision–Then Let The Consumer Shop It 

When it comes to physical products, there may be some confusion around how to offer value. In this case, your job on social media is to craft a vision on social media for the potential customer. For example, if you’re a home décor and furniture brand, piece together some of your products to create a vision of how they all tie together. A brand that does this beautifully is Anthropologie’s living section. High quality photos of fully set tables or complete living room sets paint a picture for followers – who may follow just to get inspired, rather than because they’re currently looking to move or redecorate.

The trick here is not to come across salesy in the caption and disrupt the allure. Instead, utilize Instagram’s ‘shop’ feature, where you can tag the products within the frame, and users can shop directly in the app. This presents a massive opportunity, as statistics find that 130 million Instagram users tap on ‘shop’ tags every single month. Appeal to their curiosity and make them tap.

This can also be done by showing how the product works. For example, if you have a gua sha and facial massage company, create video content about what a proper gua sha technique can look like. Create images that exacerbate key traits of the brand experience: in this case, a ‘spa night,’ or even just a mini spa day within a morning routine. All of this creates an experience and a vision for the viewer that will be enticing.

3. Find Value In Your Wheelhouse To Give 

In true ‘value first, sell second’ form, consider that not all of your posts need to centre around your product or your service. Get creative within your wheelhouse. For example, if your service is catering, create some videos teaching viewers how to put together the perfect veggie tray or charcuterie board for guests. Many entrepreneurs shy away from this, worrying they’ll teach users too much, and they won’t need them anymore. The opposite is true. If someone sees your video, makes a stellar charcuterie board and it’s a smash hit, you bet she will become a loyal follower and likely hire you eventually.

Most solely think about business social media strategy as a form of marketing or sales across Instagram squares. It’s not like that anymore. The brands that are taking off are those that are creating value-first content. In a “me first” world, remember that every consumer is primarily wondering, “How does this value ME?” So, when you adhere to the ‘value first, sell second’ motto, you will always win.

By Stephanie Burns

Stephanie Burns is the founder of The Wyld Agency, an amplification and visibility agency focused on building the legacy and personal brands of company founders. With a background in brand building, media buying, strategy and entrepreneurship, Stephanie has wide experience with an eclectic portfolio of industries. After being a contestant on the Wheel of Fortune, Burns used her winnings to launch her previous company, Chic CEO, an online resource for over 100k female entrepreneurs. With an MBA in Marketing, she’s also a contributor to Forbes Women and Entrepreneur, as well as featured in notable press outlets like Inc., Fast Company, Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, Amex Open, Cosmo, New York Times, among others.

Sourced from Forbes

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CMOs: Adapt Your Social Media Strategy for a Post-Pandemic World

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By Christine Moorman and Torren McCarthy

The Special Covid-19 Edition of The CMO Survey found that social media has become critical to marketing during the pandemic. The survey reported that social media spending has increased from 13.3% of marketing budgets in February 2020 to 23.2% in June 2020 — a 74% lift. Meanwhile, spending on traditional advertising is projected to decline, as CMOs estimate a 5.3% reduction in traditional advertising channels in the next 12 months.

Companies are seeing a historic return on their social media investments, according to the survey. The self-reported contribution of social media to overall company performance has risen sharply, up 24% since February 2020. This is an important finding because, despite steadily rising investments social media, the impact of social media has remained relatively flat since 2016.

CMOs anticipate that social media investments will remain high at 23.4% of marketing budgets into 2021. Along with this, CMOs are increasingly investing in online customer experiences: 60.8% of CMOs indicated they have “shifted resources to building customer-facing digital interfaces” and 56.2% planning to “transform their go-to-market business models to focus on digital opportunities.” It is clear that social media will continue to play an important role in driving consumers toward digital offerings.

How can marketing leaders build upon this growing trend and plan their social media marketing strategies for a post-pandemic future that is equally bright? Here are 10 key recommendations:

1. Run formal experiments. The Special Edition of the CMO Survey found a high level of marketing improvisation during the pandemic, with CMOs reporting an average 5.6 out of 7 (where 1 represents “not at all” and 7 represents “a great deal”). Despite this, survey results also document a decrease in formal experimentation on social platforms, with only 31% of marketers reporting that they conducted experiments to understand the impact of their marketing actions during the pandemic, and only 29% of marketers reporting that they invested resources into building research and experimentation capabilities.

These statistics indicate that marketers are implementing new, improvised strategies frequently, but without fully understanding their effects. They need to correct this trend in 2021: Social media platforms provide excellent opportunities to test new brand messaging, advertisements, and offerings — and to receive direct measurable feedback from target consumers. Marketers must use these tools to learn.

2. Play with new channels and features on existing platforms. Social media strategists should always be aware of what’s new on existing platforms. For example, Instagram Reels, which launched this past summer, provides a new channel to deliver the short-form video style that has swept the internet. Facebook’s gift cards or TikTok For Business, which were also released earlier this year, are similar examples. These new tools provide an opportunity to build a unique connection with consumers, who will associate their discovery of these features with the brands that first use them. A strong social media marketing strategy will include a process for identifying new features and channels and quickly creating content for them.

3. Integrate social media strategy into your overall marketing strategy. The August 2019 CMO Survey reported that social media is not well integrated with marketing strategies (scoring 4.2 on 7-point scale where 1 represents “not at all integrated” and 7 represents “very integrated”). Although a slight improvement from past surveys, this number is still too low to produce adequate returns on social media investments — and far too low for an expenditure that comprises nearly a quarter of marketing budgets.

As social media takes center stage in a post-pandemic marketing world, it needs to integrate more seamlessly with the firm’s broader marketing strategy. Because social media is the current bright light, CMOs should ensure their social media strategy directly aligns with overall marketing strategy to maximize the benefits produced by these synergies.

4. Invest in top social media talent. Social media managers are now being asked to manage a costly and highly effective piece of the marketing budget and to take on a role that often requires wearing multiple hats (copywriter, graphic designer, customer service rep, etc.). So marketing leaders need to think carefully about who should fill this key position. While the best social media managers can have a positive impact, an inexperienced or unqualified one could be detrimental to a company’s brand. The national average salary for social media managers is $50,500, according to Glassdoor, which seriously lags the average compensation for the positions they often serve in: copywriters average $58,500, marketing managers average $65,500, and ad managers average $71,000. To get top talent in this area, compensation must meet the increasing value of the role.

5. Ensure agile social media management. 2020 has shown just how quickly the social media landscape can change. Recognizing this, CMOs ranked the “ability to pivot as new priorities emerge” as the top skill they look for in marketing talent. So, when it comes to social media management, CMOs must ensure that talent, processes, and agency partners are prepared to respond to and capitalize on these sudden changes. Organizations willing to re-evaluate their social media strategies in a rapidly changing landscape will minimize risk and maximize the opportunity to connect with consumers. (To that end, a recent Journal of Marketing article highlights how real-time shifts in social media activities generate more virality online.)

6. Harness the power of influencers and creators. The allocation of marketing budgets towards influencers is on the rise, up to 7.5% from 6.5% a year ago and expected to rise to 12.7% in the next three years. As online traffic continues to increase, it will be critical for brands to identify the right influencers to attract target customers and identify growth segments. It will also be important for social media managers to invest in influencer training and relationship building; Influencers are a great way to build trust and authentic relationships with followers, who may end up being paying customers. Scheduling individual and group touch points with influencers to discuss product updates and gain feedback on trends they are observing will go a long way toward fostering a mutually beneficial partnership.

7. Carefully consider the right platform(s) for your brand. CMOs have consistently ranked brand building as their top use for social media, so it is important to consider how the platform you choose impacts consumers’ perception of your brand. In the special edition survey, consumers indicated that a “trusting relationship” is most important to them in a brand (beating out low price, product quality, and even innovation). So always consider how the policies of social media platforms (as they relate to privacy and hate speech, in particular) may undermine consumers’ trust.

8. Reduce friction between social media and e-commerce platforms. To make online shopping easy, social media managers must ensure a smooth process of funneling consumers from social media to their e-commerce site. A bad user experience in this area can lead to lost sales; a good one can boost them. So as new digital tools are developed, social media teams must insist upon frequent collaboration with development teams to ensure a smooth customer journey from mobile-app and social sites to your company’s e-commerce site.

9. Adapt your creative content to the times. It is important for brands to keep creative content relevant to the current Covid-19 reality, whatever that may be. For example, a social media post that portrays a brand at a large, indoor gathering of people could be ignored by consumers who perceive it as outdated — or worse, insensitive. On the other end of the spectrum, many consumers are fatigued from content that centers around the virus. To resonate with followers, social media content must a balance. A good example of this is the Stella Artois Staycation Swap, a contest that matches would-be travelers who had planned trips to each other’s cities that were cancelled due to Covid-19 to swap itineraries on TripAdvisor for an all-expenses-paid staycation instead.

10. Take care to select and onboard the right agency partners. Results from the February 2020 CMO Survey indicate that 24.1% of companies’ social media activities are now performed by outside agencies — an increase from 17.4% in 2014. As agency partners become an increasingly important part of an increasingly important part of the business, selecting, training, and building a strong relationship with these partners is crucial.

As the Covid-19 pandemic pushes consumers to spend more time online, social media becomes an increasingly important part of the connection between brands and their customers — both existing ones and potentially new ones. Now is the time to invest in building an integrated and agile social media management function to adapt to the new landscape.

Feature Image Credit: Westend61/ Getty Images

By Christine Moorman and Torren McCarthy

  • Christine Moorman is the T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. She is founder and director of The CMO Survey and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Marketing.
    Torren McCarthy is a Senior Consultant with Deloitte Consulting LLP and a 2020 MBA graduate from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Sourced from Harvard Business School

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I turned my side hustle into a 6-figure business in 6 years: These were my top strategies

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By Jen Glantz

“I haven’t spent a dollar on marketing or advertising,” says Bridesmaid for Hire’s Jen Glantz.

Over six years ago, when I started my first business, Bridesmaid for Hire, everyone wished me good luck. But that statement always came with a caveat. People told me that if I wanted to have any chance at being successful, I needed to pour as much cash as I could into my business.

Their reasoning? The only way to get clients would be to buy their attention through social media ads, paid search, and other marketing efforts, like influencer marketing or doing sponsored posts with well-known publications, that I couldn’t afford.

I had just been laid off from my full-time job and I was using my savings account to help keep me afloat. I didn’t have the capital to invest in my business and knew that I needed to find other ways to get new clients and people’s continued attention on my business.

That’s when I decided that I’d set out to prove people wrong. What if I didn’t put a dollar into marketing and advertising but could get a steady stream of clients and website traffic anyway?

Today, I’m still following that game plan. I haven’t spent a dollar on marketing or advertising. Here are the free tactics I used to turn my side hustle into a six-figure full-time business.

I focused on building relationships

Rather than viewing Bridesmaid for Hire’s social media presence as a promotional driver that would push people to make purchases, I saw my social media accounts as a relationship building tool.

So when I made my social plan, I created three content categories.

  1. Educational and engaging behind-the-scenes content
  2. Press and testimonials from clients who have used the service, which allowed us to take a break from talking about ourselves and pulls in a variety of other voices
  3. Promotions (“buy this package, grab this deal” — only 10% of our posts)

Doing this allowed people to gain value from our social media channel feed. It allowed us to build brand loyalty and awareness, and that often turned into people heading to our website to learn more and work with us.

I also tapped into free tools like Canva and Headliner.app to help me create professional looking content.

Doing my social media strategy on my own and using free tools saved me thousands of dollars that could have been spent hiring an agency or a designer. I used a fraction of that money, instead, to invest in video and photography assets for the business. 

I got good at pitching my story

One big thing I realized about myself as a consumer was that I didn’t start caring about a brand or business from their ads or marketing messages. I did, however, seem to give them a second look when I encountered them in an article or a TV segment, or on a podcast interview.

That’s when I realized that getting constant PR around my business and even around myself could be a valuable way to get new clients.

I made a list of publications I knew my audience cared about, from bridal magazines to podcasts, and sent pitch emails around the purpose of my business, uniqueness of my services, and even some unusual stories of what it’s like to work this job.

Over time, I had success getting the media’s attention, especially once I learned how to pitch stories around their editorial calendar and current trends. I have been able to be featured in over a hundred different stories and segments over the past six years.

I realized that getting constant PR around my business and even around myself could be a valuable way to get new clients.

I also used two free services, Help a Reporter Out and Qwoted, which brought press opportunities to my inbox. These websites share alerts when reporters or publications are looking for specific kinds of people as sources for articles. If you reply, you have a chance of being featured. This helped me secure various media placements.

Getting press helped us stay top-of-mind status in potential customers’ minds and allowed the news of our business to be shareable. It also allowed us to show up in the prime real estate locations our audience was already going to for news and updates without having to spend money advertising there. While I can’t measure an exact number of clients I received from this, it helped with brand exposure, brand awareness, and remaining top-of-mind status with my audience.

Dedicating a few hours each week to pitching the media in lieu of working with a PR agency has saved me thousands of dollars over the years.

I collaborated with peers in my space

A few months into launching my business, I created a master list of other companies and brands in my industry, who didn’t provide the same service I did, but still attracted my audience. I brainstormed ways to work with each of these companies that would be beneficial to both of us and reached out to ask if they’d be open to collaborating.

Some said yes to things like joint social media content through Instagram story takeovers, guest blog posts on each other’s websites, giveaways, and more. All of these collaborations were free, meaning I didn’t pay to work with these companies. To get them to say yes, even though I was new to the game, I provided a list of what I’d bring to the table: content creation, strategy, multiple promotional posts, and more.

This gave me exposure to their audience while giving them exposure to the small audience I was quickly building. It was a win-win situation. I’ve done over 20 brand collaborations over the past six years. While in some instances you can pay brands to do these partnerships with you, I didn’t go that route. Instead, I approached brands with a detailed strategy of how we’d add value to each other’s business.

For social media content, I was able to get traction in terms of building followers and getting website traffic. For giveaways and blog posts, I was able to help build up my email list, which allowed me to keep in contact with my audience and share news or offerings.

I developed a customer referral program

After working with my first 10 clients, I decided that it would be a good idea to have a referral program. I decided, since I didn’t want to offer a money reward, that I’d offer a product instead. I sent an email to my clients and offered them a free book, or phone session with me, if they sent over a referral.

This referral system worked and currently accounts for 15% to 20% of my new business yearly and it doesn’t cost any capital. Sure, I am giving away something for free, which costs the business a small amount of profit, around $50 to $200 a person. But it ends up being worthwhile since the amount of money a new client will spend is way more than the cost of the freebie I give existing clients when they send over a referral.

5:45
How Amobi Okugo turned a side hustle into a full-time business

Video by Courtney Stith

I provided free content

A good lesson I learned early on from my business mentors was to always offer a lot of free content for your audience to consume. I created high-value content, such as blog posts with practical tips to podcast episodes with popular guests, as a way of getting people to come back to my website and care about my brand, without asking them to buy something.

Doing this was a powerful way of creating constant brand awareness and a great strategy for getting people to come visit my website and stay for a while.

It’s hard to track which new clients or sales came from this method but either way, it’s a necessary thing to do as part of your overall strategy. Without free content, people might not pull out their wallet and buy from you, especially if they’ve never heard of the brand before, regardless of how big your ad budget is.

I led with my expertise

A final free thing I did to scale my business was to get in front of my audience whenever I could. I made lists of conferences and events I knew my audience would be at and pitched myself to the organizers to be a guest speaker.

Showing up at these events and hosting a workshop allowed me to get in front of people who were my direct target audience. It often led to immediate sales or even an increase in people knowing about the business and referring friends in the future.

You can find trade shows or events, even virtual ones, where you have to pay to present or display your product.

Working with no budget made me think outside the box and offer up my advice and knowledge as a thought leader instead. This added to the event’s programming and allowed me to meet hundreds or thousands of prospective clients, without paying to be there.

I view all of these strategies as puzzle pieces. Each have an importance and together they lead to business growth and a constant influx of new clients. Not having a big budget, or any budget, to spend on marketing or advertising won’t set you back if you find opportunities to enter the space of your audience and engage them in unique ways.

Feature Image Credit: Jen Glantz is the founder of Bridesmaid for Hire. Photo by Chris Ziegler

By Jen Glantz

Jen Glantz is the founder and CEO of the business Bridesmaid for Hire, the voice of the podcast ”You’re Not Getting Any Younger,″ and the author of the Amazon-bestselling books, ”All My Friends Are Engaged″ and ”Always a Bridesmaid for Hire.”

Sourced from grow

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Jump-Start Your Social Media Efforts In 2020

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By Christina Hager.

It’s the beginning of the new year, and not only that; it’s 2020, which has a particularly daunting — or awesome — ring to it, depending on how you look at it. At the start of the year, everyone is certain to rally around the traditional resolutions, like eating better, exercising more and going to bed earlier. But it’s also the time when marketing professionals, business leaders, brands and startups decide they need to get serious about their social media efforts.

Unfortunately, in their enthusiasm to get going, far too many people charge ahead without the proper strategy and support, and find themselves either without the return on investment they expected or burned out on their efforts come April.

To keep you from making those mistakes, here is a checklist for how to jump-start your social media efforts this year:

1. Start with your business goals.

What are you looking to accomplish in the first quarter? By year end? In five years?

Don’t think about what you want to accomplish on social media, but for your actual business. I find that too many organizations focus on what they want to get out of their social media, and don’t start by examining their business goals. Without articulating your business goals, you won’t know the proper next steps to take with social media.

2. Define your audience and which channels they use.

One of the biggest mistakes brands and individual thought leaders make when it comes to social media is that they think they need to be everywhere. Wrong! You don’t need to be on every single channel.

Once you’ve defined your audience (if you say your audience is “everyone,” you’re off to a bad start), you can use best practices to learn where, when and how they use social media. Don’t go to the newest channel just because it’s the latest thing — have a strategy on why you need to be there.

3. Develop a social media strategy.

Most people skip over this step, but a warning: It’s the most important part!

After you articulate your business goals and identify your target demographic, it’s time to develop a social media strategy that addresses your goals, utilizes the best channels for your demographic and articulates what you want to accomplish on each channel. Examples might include building brand identity, elevating brand awareness, distributing thought leadership or driving traffic to a website.

4. Learn best practices for each channel.

Besides knowing where your target demographic “lives” and how they use each social media channel, you must understand the best practices for each channel. This means knowing the best times to post, how to optimize a post for a particular channel and how to best use the channels.

For instance, if you are going to use Twitter, a few tweets a week won’t cut it. You will likely need two posts a day at a bare minimum — but optimally, you should aim for 10 or more! You must also use hashtags, engage with your audience and with other accounts, participate in “tweet chats,” and post a variety of content.

5. Create campaigns and build your content.

Develop social media campaigns that align with your goals. Then create pieces of content for your campaigns — and go beyond text. You’ll need photos, videos (which you can film in batches), polls, Instagram stories, etc. You should develop content that addresses your target demographic and is right for the given channel (this is something I’ve written about in a previous piece).

6. Don’t forget about curated content.

So many people get scared about social media because they think they don’t have time to create all the content they need. But don’t forget about curated content! This means content created by people you trust that is valid for your audience and their needs.

This could be YouTube videos, articles, graphics, blog posts, etc. If you are going to share it, just make sure it is relevant for your audience — don’t share it just because it’s the latest meme to go viral.

7. Create well-planned social media campaigns.

Build campaigns based on your social media goals for each channel, and include clear calls to action (CTAs). One channel might have a brand awareness campaign going, while another has a thought leadership campaign. Be deliberate about what each campaign is designed to accomplish.

8. Create a distribution schedule.

You can’t post content whenever you feel like it and hope for the best. The easiest way to keep track of your content and campaigns is by creating a content distribution schedule.

You might use an Excel spreadsheet or create an editorial calendar. Create tabs for all of the pertinent information, such as the asset or content, copy (with hashtags), date and time, channel, and image. Include both your original and curated content on this schedule.

9. Choose an execution point person.

You might utilize someone in your office, an agency or a freelancer. You can also save money by finding a savvy social media user, such as a marketing student, who will follow your content distribution calendar and post it all for you.

If you are using social media for extended customer service (which many clients expect), you will need a point person monitoring your channels and a plan for what to do when there is customer interaction on the channels.

10. Don’t forget about metrics!

All of your social media efforts can be measured. Your initial strategy should clearly define what can be measured. Decide when you are going to take those measurements, who is going to do it and which metrics are important to you.

This doesn’t just mean counting “likes.” Focus on engagement metrics like shares and comments, as well as responses to your CTA, such as a click to a website. All of this can and should be tracked for each campaign and each channel.

With these strategies firmly in mind, you’ll head into the new year on your social media A-game!

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Christina Hager

As Head of Social Media Strategy at Overflow, I help transform individuals and brands into industry leaders.

Sourced from Forbes

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The New E-Commerce Social Media Strategy: Why Direct Selling Is the Future of Retail

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Social media has become central to the customer shopping experience, and it’s all due to the value consumers place on social media content. According to eMarketer, the role of social networks as a research tool for gaining product and purchasing information has risen steadily in recent years, with 36 percent of consumers citing social platforms as essential to their purchasing decisions.

As a result, brands have had to reshape their e-commerce social media strategy around the increasingly primary role social media is playing in driving sales. While social channels have long been viewed as referral channels for e-commerce websites, new social functionality and shifting consumer preferences are changing the role of social content in e-commerce strategies.

In short, when it comes to e-commerce, social media is becoming a primary destination for sales.

This trend of social commerce is backed by evidence on all sides of the transaction. According to Business Insider, 500 top retailers earned roughly $6.5 billion from social shopping in 2017, a 24 percent year-over-year increase. Since then, social platforms have been testing and deploying new direct-selling functionality that lets retail brands create social content which can lead to a quick, social-based purchase.

According to a consumer survey by Avionos, 55 percent of shoppers have made a purchase through social media within the past year. All the signs point to continued growth of social commerce and to social media’s increasingly central role in retail e-commerce. Today’s brands are starting to think of social media as a sales platform, and consumers are using social content as a discovery tool for new, exciting products—especially products that fall into the lifestyle category.

Here’s a look at how some brands are transitioning from using social media as a referral channel to a lucrative direct sales opportunity.

Using Social to Drive Direct Selling

Thanks to the development of buy buttons and other e-commerce features, social networks are turning their individual pieces of content into potential points of purchase. Social content isn’t something you click through to reach an e-commerce site anymore: Rather, it is the front page of your e-commerce sales.

Brands have taken note, and they’re trying to build effective strategies for selling to an audience directly through social ads and content. The retail apparel brand J. Crew has been working on these strategies for years, and more recently it has embraced social commerce opportunities as a potential strategy to turn around its slumping retail sales. In 2016, the company launched a promotional social campaign that plugged a new pink version of its popular “Jane” sunglasses line.

The social promotion was primarily designed to drum up interest in a full product release the following week; but to increase engagement with the brand, the company offered a limited presale, where consumers could purchase the sunglasses early through its Instagram Stories promotion. The promotional inventory quickly sold out, scoring J. Crew a win on multiple fronts: Not only did the brand succeed in building hype for its impending product release, but it also demonstrated the potential selling power of social direct selling.

The ability to sell products directly through social platforms is something brands are eager to deploy on a larger scale. According to ZDNet, 48 percent of marketers say that if social media offered direct selling products, they would be more likely to increase their use of social media for marketing and business purposes.

Even with hurdles to clear in execution—such as reducing friction in social selling via one-touch ordering and other features—it’s clear that brands and consumers recognize the opportunity and advantage of social-based retail.

Leveraging Influencers and User-Generated Content

As brands look to shape an e-commerce social media strategy built around social purchasing, the original appeal of social content must not get lost in the fray. The principles of great social content still apply, even when brands are transparent about their sales aspirations. As Econsultancy points out, consumers still possess a natural aversion to advertising, and visual content that lacks a brand’s typical social authenticity could turn consumers away in these coveted sales windows.

But this can be a difficult tightrope to walk since any branded social account features content that comes with a certain degree of artifice. The easiest remedy, then, is to lean into the strategies that have helped brands sell their authenticity in the past, namely influencers and user-generated content (UGC).

Consumers prefer to purchase products that they discover in an organic way, according to Econsultancy, rather than finding products in their social feeds via brand sponsorship. Seek out influencers that have a reputation of trust with their followers, and solicit UGC that aligns with your brand’s storytelling goals as a way of building authenticity into your social shopping channels. In other words, make sure social commerce strategies are an extension of the brand experience you’re already offering on social media, rather than an inserted ad that looks and feels out of place with the rest of your content.

Influencer selfies

Image attribution: polybazze

The Goal: Efficient Spending Through Social Selling

The ease experience of shopping via social media is a big advantage when trying to better serve customers. But where your e-commerce social media strategy is concerned, direct purchasing through social media also eliminates a costly step in the consumer path to purchase. In a more traditional marketing strategy where social media is referring traffic to the e-commerce site, the value of that exposure is dependent on what the customer does on the site.

With purchasing options built into the social content itself, ROI is still dependent on making a sale, but there’s greater efficiency in the entire marketing campaign. As TrackMaven has pointed out in the past, the ultimate goal of retail marketing is to lower the overall customer acquisition cost for an organization. You’ll always need to be marketing to current and prospective shoppers, but you want this expense to be as efficient as possible, while also driving the largest volume of sales.

In theory, direct social selling should be able to improve your organization’s spending efficiency for its marketing campaigns. Recall the J. Crew sunglasses campaign: Through a simple promotion via Instagram, the company quickly sold out of its promotional inventory. This ability to drive purchases via social represents low cost, high ROI opportunities, which can boost both your customer acquisition cost and your spending efficiency. And it’s a strategy which can be easily replicated by any brand—big or small.

If consumers are eager to follow brands on social media, as we know is the case, then brands have a direct channel to sell products to them. On Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and other social platforms, direct social selling can be a quick, cost-effective marketing tactic that pairs cost-effective spending with the ability to seize upon consumers’ impulses.

The infrastructure for social media as a sales platform is still maturing, so there’s progress to be made on the platform side. But because social retail is already driving billions of dollars in annual sales, it’s time for every retail marketer to start testing new ways to take advantage.

By 

Jonathan Crowl specializes in digital marketing and content creation for both B2B and B2C brands, with an emphasis on startups and technology. His past and current clients include B2B brands IBM, LinkedIn, Mad Mobile, Oktopost, BrightSpot, and Waze, as well as B2C brands Porsche, Epson, and PayPal. He lives in Minneapolis.

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What Your Business Should And Shouldn’t Publish Online

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By Shu Saito.

Gone are the days when social media was used solely for connecting friends and family. Social media has now become the norm for all types of businesses to market and sell their brand. Yet even in the current social media climate, businesses still struggle to fully use online mediums successfully. As a founder and CEO of two successful online businesses, I have first-hand experience of what works (and what doesn’t) in the social media business world. My experiences and mistakes can help both young entrepreneurs and well-established brands alike create and cultivate their successful online businesses.

Understand Your Audience

As I planned my social media strategy, one of the first lessons I learned was how important it is to understand your audience. The more I knew about my audience’s age, occupation, motivations and worldviews, the more I was able to create and time posts that resonated with them. And the questions I find useful to ask myself as I engage with my social accounts are: “In what ways am I helping my audiences? How does my product improve the lives of my audience?”

Remember that social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, aren’t simply broadcast media. They are engagement media, which means they are also listening networks. I use several methods to listen to my audiences, including Google analytics and staying on top of trending hashtags and social mentions. I also regularly conduct YouTube and Twitter searches. I have found that these tools help me understand what my readers are interested in and predict what content may spark their imagination.

Understand Your Social Media Platforms

I have also learned that I need to tailor my social media strategies according to the social channel I am using. Because each social media platform has its own unique traits, your content and strategy may work for one platform and not another. For example, I experimented using image-heavy content on all of my social media channels. While images were successful on Instagram and YouTube, they were less successful on Twitter.

By way of illustration, on one of my sites, we posted this following fact on all of our media accounts: “On average, cats spend two-thirds of every day sleeping. That means a nine-year-old cat has been awake for only three years of its life.” Although we posted the fact on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with the same image, it received more likes and shares on Facebook and Instagram than it did on Twitter. This isn’t to say that you should never use an image on Twitter. Once again, listen to your audience. If you think an image will help connect you with your audience on Twitter, then use an image.

Understand Post Timing And Frequency

Along with knowing your audience and the dynamics of social media platforms, a successful business will know when to post. I have found that even high-quality messages posted at the wrong times will go nowhere. In contrast, a high quality-quality message posted at the right time can lead to more shares and likes. For example, I created very high-quality Pinterest posts, but I haphazardly posted them. The result was a mediocre Pinterest account.

Once I scheduled posts more consistently and spaced them out, my Pinterest account quickly received more attention and repins. I specifically implemented an editorial calendar that both helped keep me on schedule and helped me plan for special days and holidays.

Understand Your Marketing Niche

A company’s marketing objective will also affect the timing and frequency of social media posts. Specifically, a company’s post will change depending on whether the company is focusing on the following types of marketing: brand, media or e-commerce. The below chart explains the various types of marketing, tips specific to that type of marketing, as well as how often to post.

•  Brand Marketing

What it is: More than just promoting a logo, brand marketing is building awareness for your company and creating campaigns that drive influence acquisition.

Post frequency: 1-10 times per month

Do: Post something new and novel, like a stance on issues

Don’t: Rely heavily on scheduled, template-like posts that cause your brand to seem disingenuous

•   Media Marketing

What it is: Media marketing is a form of internet marketing that uses social networking websites as a marketing tool.

Frequency: Daily

Do: Utilize social media management tools to help stay up-to-date and relevant; post content that is interesting or newsworthy; streamline your focus into the topics that relevant, sharable and pertinent to your audience

Don’t: Post anything and everything without direction

•   E-commerce Marketing

What it is: Short for electronic commerce, e-commerce marketing is the process of distributing, buying, selling or marketing goods and services through electronic communications or networks.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

By Shu Saito

Sourced from Forbes

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How To Make LinkedIn The Hub Of Your Social Media Strategy

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By  William Arruda ,

If you’re ready to rocket your career success, LinkedIn is the ultimate fuel. And you can accelerate the results even more by making it the engine behind all of your professional social media activity. Here’s how you can maximize your visibility and your value by placing LinkedIn at the center of your digital branding strategy.

Step 1: Build Brand Communications

First, you need to create the right brand communications materials to use in all forms of social media. Then you can determine how to post without having to create new content for each platform.

Brand identity. Your brand identity system is the packaging that surrounds your brand. It includes color, fonts, images, a tag line, etc. Start by developing your brand identity for LinkedIn – including creating a custom background image. Then have similar versions created for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Bio. Take the time to craft a compelling bio to use as your LinkedIn summary. You have 2,000 characters to tell the world who you are and why they should care. Because it shows up near the top of the results for a Google search on your name, your LinkedIn summary will likely be the most read version of your bio. And for people who are checking you out online before they meet you, your LinkedIn summary creates your first impression. Here’s the process that will help you create a stellar summary. Once you’re happy with it, create shorter versions for your other social media – including the shortest version of all – your 160-character Twitter bio.

Images. Perform an inventory of images that you can add to your Summary and Experience sections of your LinkedIn profile. Include items like slide presentations, photos, videos, whitepapers, etc.

The one thing you will want to vary for your profiles is your headshot. There are two reasons for this:

  1. You want multiple versions of your headshot to show up on page one of a Google search on you. Thanks to blended search, Google shows relevant images on page one. In order for you to appear on page one, make sure you name your photo yourname.jpg.
  2. Different media are better for showcasing different facets of your brand. You might want to be more professional on LinkedIn than on Facebook, for example.

Step 2: Identify Your Social Media

Choose social media platforms that are powerful career advancers – the ones where your target audience hangs out. Then identify the ways in which they overlap with LinkedIn.

Twitter. You can tweet without ever having to go to your Twitter account. When you link your Twitter account to LinkedIn, you can share updates on LinkedIn and Twitter at the same time – as long as your update is no more than 140 characters.

SlideShare. LinkedIn purchased SlideShare and has created a strong integration between them. SlideShare is a powerful tool for expressing your thought-leadership. When you publish the PDF of a slide presentation at SlideShare, you can instantly make it available to your connections and groups at LinkedIn, and you can publish it to your LinkedIn profile.

YouTube. Now that LinkedIn allows you to integrate videos into the Summary and Experience sections of your profile, you can easily enhance your profile with relevant videos that you publish to YouTube. In addition, via the share function in YouTube, you can make your video visible to valuable LinkedIn connections and groups.

What does all this add up to? Mastering LinkedIn is the first step to mastering social media. The final step is to build a well-connected network and then create a schedule for sharing your content with them on a regular basis. This will put you on the fast track for becoming visible and valuable to an audience of decision makers.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

By  William Arruda 

William Arruda is the cofounder of CareerBlast and creator of the complete LinkedIn quiz that helps you evaluate your LinkedIn profile and networking strategy.

Sourced from Forbes

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An Early Warning Sign to Change Your Social Media Strategy

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By Ryan Holmes.

Treating social media as just another marketing channel? Tread lightly. A user revolt is brewing.

Fake. It’s a word that gets mentioned a lot these days when we talk about social media. Fake news. Fake followers. Real people sharing fake, filtered versions of their lives.

It’s enough to make you stop and wonder: Is there something inherently wrong with social media? Is it bad for us? It it … evil?

This isn’t a new question. I’ve thought about it a lot over the years. My life and career are wrapped up in social media. I know it’s sometimes tempting to dismiss social networks as time sucks … or even threats to civilization. But this is too simplistic. The truth, I think, is much closer to an old adage:

The day after fire was invented, someone invented arson.

Social media, just like fire, is a technology. It’s neither good nor evil. You can use it to bring warmth and light into your life. Or you can use it to burn, harm, and destroy.

For some people, social media is a valuable tool that brings together family and friends, raises awareness for social causes and gives us something to scroll through when we’re bored. For others, it becomes a tool for exploitation, an unhealthy addiction, even a vehicle to spread hate and violence.

Ultimately, the impact is in our hands. Social media, as the name suggests, is just the medium–not the message.

The social paradox

Having said that, it’s not hard to understand the haters. In some respects, social media has done a 180. In the beginning, it was about living out loud–an antidote to slick corporate messages and imagery pushed out over TV and in magazines. Facebook was revolutionary precisely because it was real–immediate and unfiltered. On Twitter, people really did share photos of their breakfast.

But that’s changed. The gold standard in social media these days is something that’s “Instagram-worthy.” Instead of a raw look at real life, we get an impossibly beautiful and polished version of life–cropped, filtered … largely fictitious. Even when it’s our own face. The popular Facetune app, for example, makes it possible for anyone to airbrush their features to model-worthy perfection. (And, more often than not, these perfect people on Instagram are actually trying to sell us something.)

That same craving for fakeness and excess partly explains the prevalence of fake news and clickbait. As our news feeds get increasingly crowded, it’s hard to resist gravitating to splashy, tabloid headlines, even when we sense something just doesn’t add up. Fakeness is a lot like trans fat in that way–tempting but just empty calories; irresistible but ultimately damaging.

A real-ness revolt

But it’s critical to remember social media isn’t just that. And it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it’s not hard to see a countermovement afoot–a push to reclaim social media’s roots. Snapchat started it. Disappearing pics gave people license to be real again. Silly lenses helped us let our hair down. Instead of worrying about projecting a personal brand, we actually started communicating.

Thankfully, other networks have begun to get the message, too. Facebook Live videos are proving so popular because you only get one take–no re-dos. Instagram Stories already has 250 million users in large part because it’s a lot more interesting to watch an unedited video of someone than to look at a picture that’s been Photoshopped to death.

Intimacy and authenticity are regaining a foothold. Especially among younger users, fake is out. Teens have taken to starting “finsta” accounts–friends-only Instagram profiles–so they can share a “less edited, less filtered version of their lives.” The newfound popularity of the Minutiae app–which alerts users at a random time and challenges them to share a “mundane” picture of their actual surroundings–is another testament to this real-ness revolt.

Social media lessons for businesses

So, where does this leave all the companies today who rely on social media to connect with customers? To me, it’s an early warning. Social media has grown into an invaluable business tool. (In fact, my company is built on that fact.) But treating social media as business as usual is a recipe for failure.

More than other channels, social media marketing requires creativity, reinvention and breaking rules. Because there are no gatekeepers, people are constantly pushing the limits and demanding more real-ness and more honesty. Businesses that have grown used to treating social media as just another mass marketing channel may have a rough road ahead.

The key, instead, is to find ways to reclaim social media’s personal and human roots. Granted, doing this at scale isn’t easy. But the more that businesses are able to share candid updates and connect with people on an individual level, the greater the impact that their messages will have. Getting actual employees on board–and even executives–can go a long way to breathing life back into dry corporate social media channels. Tracking “meaningful relationship moments“–not vanity metrics like Likes or RTs–is also a step in the right direction.

The alternative isn’t pretty. A rebellion is brewing. Social media may be more prevalent than ever, but news streams today are as likely to be greeted with skepticism as with enthusiasm. Honesty, transparency and authenticity are re-emerging as the new standard. Anything less is playing with fire.

Image Credit: Getty Images

By Ryan Holmes

Founder and CEO, Hootsuite

Sourced from Inc.

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