Tag: Social Media

4 TIPS FOR CULTIVATING SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS

Posted by Amy Rose

Learn how to keep your followers engaged and how to make the workload manageable.

Growing a social media following in a crowded digital landscape takes a tailored social media strategy coupled with industry insights and technical know-how. But it can all seem so overwhelming! The best way to start is to focus on one thing at a time. Today, we are talking about ‘4 Ways to Cultivate Social Media Followers.’

Keep reading to learn how to keep your followers engaged and how to make the workload manageable. It’s not about doing ALL THE THINGS. It’s truly about finding what is right for you and your brand. Read on…

1. PLAN AHEAD

The best way to a successful social media content strategy is to plan ahead. Don’t do things on a whim. The first step is to create a social media content calendar. Having this tool will ensure you don’t miss key dates. You can create your calendar in Google Sheets to keep it really simple. Or, you can use a specific social media management tool. Choose from a free tool like HootSuite, or you can choose a paid version like Monday or Sendible that our team prefers.

The good news is that most paid tools offer a free trial period. So, try a few different ones and find out what works best for you. Whatever tool you use, plan ahead for content that helps support your business goals.

2. BE CONSISTENT

There’s something to knowing what to expect. And the same goes for your social media followers. They’ve come to know and love your brand so your social media accounts should be representative of your brand. When someone visits your social media channels they should see the brand they are familiar with. And for new and potential customers, it’s good to show them what your brand is all about.

How can you be consistent with you social media presence? From the creative to the post copy there are many ways to let your brand shine. One of the easiest ways is to use the same colors and embellishments on your social media posts. If you need help creating those check out our Creative Elements Package. It is a unique offering by Afflecto where we give you all the tools to create beautiful social media posts that are consistent with your brand identity. Many small businesses have benefitted from using this package. It’s an easy way to create good social media content.

Additionally, ensure you find your unique voice and that it comes through in how your posts are written. Create a brand persona and define how that person would talk and what words they’d us. Then use that to guide your post writing.

The different content types you share can also create consistency. Users find the most value in educational content and entertaining content, but you also have to determine what is right for your brand. As an example, if you are an orthodontic office, you probably want to share content about the benefits of seeing an orthodontist at an early age (educational) and funny memes about visiting the orthodontist (entertaining). But you will also need to share some get-to-know you content about the people in your office. That way followers can see their favorite hygienist, or the staff that will be treating them. While this isn’t educational or funny, it humanizes the brand by showing some personal aspects of the office.

3. KNOW TRENDS

Be aware of social media trends, but only participate when they make sense for your brand. You don’t need to jump on the bandwagon for every trend. Be mindful of how participating in trends can work within your overall social media strategy.

One “trend” that will always work is user-generated content (UGC). If your fans and followers are sharing content about your brand, it’s always a good idea to use it! First, ask their permission. And once it is granted, share this UGC with your other fans. This authentic content resonates well with nearly all social media users. And potential customers will see it as an endorsement of your brand.

4. CHOOSE QUALITY

If you have a lot on your plate and can’t manage posting to social everyday, then do what you can. Your reach and engagement will increase as you post more, but you also want to share high-quality content. If that means sharing one post per week, than make it amazing!

Also, don’t feel like you have to be present on every social media channel. Choosing the right social networks for your brand is a great way to limit the workload, but still reach your target audience. If your audience is older, you might just need to focus on Facebook and Instagram. If your target is much younger, then you’ll want to consider focusing your efforts on TikTok. Just remember, don’t just to post. Be intentional.

EASY TO USE INFOGRAPIC

Here is an infographic that captures all of this information in an easy to use way. Print it off and keep it by your desk as a reminder of the 4 tips to cultivating social media followers.

4 Tips for Cultivating Social Media Followers infographic

Contact Afflecto for Social Media Assistance

We can help drive engagement, awareness and conversions. But first, we’ll talk about your goals. Then, we can do as much, or as little as you’d like. Our team can create a Creative Elements Package that will give you all the tools you need to create beautiful social content. Or, we can handle all of your social media management from social media strategy to content creation and community management. Now is the right time to get your social media channels in order. Contact us to learn more about the social media options we offer.

4 Ways Video Marketing Can Improve Your Business

Posted by Rachel Franz

Video content marketing has been around for decades, and yet, it has only been a few years since businesses started embracing it in everyday life. With the effectiveness, affordability, and engagement of video content all skyrocketing, now is the time to incorporate it into your marketing strategy! It is one of the most powerful tools you can add to your small business marketing toolkit.

We’ve identified the 4 ways video marketing can improve your business. Read on to find out how your marketing strategy can utilize video to drive sales, increase awareness, and get new customers:

1.   Organic Social Video Content

If you’re one of the 50 million people who visit TikTok every day, you know all about this use case already – video content is entertaining! It’s a great way to connect with people in a very friendly and natural-feeling way. It’s also the best method for your business to get in on the latest trends, infuse some personality into your brand, and just have fun!

When people watch a video that features a member of your team, a user of your product, or a raving fan of your business, it makes them feel almost as if they received a recommendation from a trusted friend. Shaking up your social feed with quality video content will add a serious boost to your credibility. It will also increase people’s perception of your brand – all without spending a dime on ads. 

2.   Eye-Catching Video Ads

Ok, so maybe you do want to spend a couple dimes on ads. Video can help you here too! Using video in your marketing campaign is often more engaging – and appealing – to your target audience. Instead of using static images, consider using videos as an effective way to get across your message. There are a couple key ways video ads outperform their non-video competition:

  • Video is more engaging, and it’s more likely to encourage people to view or click your ads (as much as a 2x increase, according to a Paid Ads Specialist at SeoPlus+!)
  • You can fit more information in a video format, giving people a better understanding of your product & brand than they’d get from a still image
  • Increase ad conversion rates.

As with any marketing initiative, a combo is usually best and you need to test, test, test for best results. But if your ad game has plateaued, video content could be just the thing to spice your content up. If you’re spending money on advertising you want to ensure that you get better results. Marketing videos are the way to do this.

3.   Video SEO with YouTube

It seems like SEO changes by the minute, but one thing has remained true for many years – good video can help your rankings. YouTube is a great place to get started. YouTube is actually the second largest search engine out there with 122 million daily users, and over a billion hours of video content consumed every single day according to Omnicore. Loading all of your brand videos onto YouTube is an excellent way to improve your SEO and reach potential buyers.

You can start with videos that have a high production value. High-quality video is usually produced by a marketing agency. Afflecto offers this service to current and potential customers. Unfortunately, a small business owner may not be able to afford a marketing agency. If that’s you, you can still create successful video content. Use your mobile phone and online editing software. In recent years consumers have become accustomed to seeing video production with a range of production values. So the good news is that anyone can make video. Either way, just dive in and get started!

Types of Videos to Create

Stumped as to what types of videos to create? Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Use customer testimonials to create videos that function as online customer reviews.
  • Create tutorial videos by giving your audience tips on how to solve a common problem.
  • Brand video is a great way to tell your customers about your company.
  • Product videos are a good idea for highlighting what products you sell and calling out specific features.

Once you’ve done the work, be sure to share it. Upload your video work to your YouTube channel and also share it on your social media pages.

The best part about YouTube SEO campaigns is that a lot of businesses aren’t doing it! While you may find it hard to compete in the super-saturated blog space, there is still plenty of opportunity to utilize a strong YouTube campaign to improve your overall impression share. Remember to add relevant keywords, a good video title, all the proper tags and descriptions, and you’ll be well on your way to tapping into the YouTube market.

PRO TIP: YouTube Snippets

Featured ‘snippets’ are pieces of content Google has selected to answer a certain query. They’re highly coveted spaces that land above search results and usually generate a ton of traffic for their website. YouTube content is now eligible to be chosen for a snippet, so go create those FAQ videos!

4.   Team Time-Savers

Are there certain things your team finds themselves explaining again and again? Let a video do the talking for you! By recording those recurring conversations and sharing with potential (or current) clients you’ll quickly discover hours (even DAYS) of time savings. Here are a couple pieces of content that could be good candidates for video responses:

  • A product demo to show the intricacies of how something works.
  • An onboarding video to get people acquainted with your business.
  • A ‘how-to’ video  if your clients need to do some set-up or troubleshooting on their own.
  • A sizzle reel/promotional video if your sales team could benefit from a visual aid.

Video FAQs can easily be emailed or texted to clients, added to your web pages, or uploaded to YouTube for the public. This will make information easily accessible to the right people – a huge benefit to you and the people you do business with.

Not Sure Where To Start with Video?

The benefits of video marketing are abundant. They can make a complex subject easy to understand, increase the performance of your digital marketing efforts, and increase engagement with your brand. If you don’t want to go it alone, we’re here to help!

Afflecto has experience in planning video strategy, scripting, and shooting video content for businesses of all sizes. Afflecto helps our clients create high-quality videos they can add to their social platforms, website, YouTube channels, and just about anywhere else. Schedule a free chat with us today to learn more about this powerful tool. We look forward to helping your business grow with video marketing efforts!

How To Plan a Year’s Worth of Social Content in 3 Easy Steps

Posted by Rachel Franz

We talk to a lot of business owners who declare themselves ‘not good writers’ and feel like they have no idea where to start when it comes to creating social content. Little do they know, they are usually sitting on a goldmine of industry knowledge, product details, testimonials, and other information their customers are dying to know!

When social media isn’t your full-time job, it’s difficult to dedicate the time it takes to come up with new post ideas on a daily or weekly basis. If you’re ready to upgrade your business’ social media game, but not sure where to start, this how-to is for you. Take a look at our three easy steps that will tell you how to plan a year’s worth of social media content in no time! Before you know it, this important to-do will be crossed off your to-do list for good! Follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Determine Your Goals

The first step is to determine what you want from this exercise. Social media feels like a necessary evil for many business owners. They spend way too long agonizing over how often to post, what to say, and how it should look. The best way to get started is to understand how your social media presence fits into their greater business goals.

Before you sit down to create your social media content plan, think about what you want to accomplish in your business. A good idea is to ask yourself a few simple questions. What are your marketing goals? Do you want to hire more people? Get your brand in front of a wider audience? Bolster sales of a new product or service? Highlight events or promotions throughout the year? Outlining these kinds of high-level objectives will help focus your content and make sure it’s actually serving a purpose.

Answering these questions is a great way to get a better understanding of topics to address in your social content.

Step 2: Write Your Copy

Ah, now for the fun part! Writing social posts can be intimidating, but with our Content Creation Grid, you can create dozens of posts in a matter of hours! This tool will save you a lot of time. On one axis, think about the focus of your social media content – perhaps a feature of a specific product, a fun historical fact about your business or industry, or an example of how someone uses your service to better their life. 

Afflecto Media Marketing free social media content creation tool

The other axis is the format addresses the variety of content types you can use on social media. This is how you will present your ideas. You might consider writing it out as a blog post or whitepaper, creating video content, or maybe choose something interactive like a quiz. Different people like to engage with different kinds of content, so it’s important to shake things up. What you will find is that one piece of content – such as a blog – can become many types of social posts. For example, a blog can be shared, but also become a video for Instagram Reels, a .gif for an Instagram post, an infographic on LinkedIn, AND a carousel of facts on Facebook.

The powerful tool we call the Content Creation Grid is the easiest way to create different types of content…quickly. With this tool, you can mix and match your focus and format to create 100+ pieces of content without reinventing the wheel 100 different times. Have ideas for other focuses or formats? Feel free to add your own! And the good news is that you can get started today by downloading this free social media tool today. We’re happy to share!

Our free templates will help you, your Social Media Manager, or whomever you have working (or not working) on your social media content. You’ll be amazed at the type of content options you are able to plan out.

Step 3: Create Cohesive Graphics

Social media posts need graphics, so the next step is to create graphics for your ideas. There are many things your graphics need to be – compelling, creative, but most importantly, cohesive. When people see your social content, they should instantly know it’s coming from you based on the look and feel of the content. 

When creating your social graphics, think beyond throwing your logo over a stock image. Build up a collection of fonts, colors, banners, and more to give your posts a custom feel. Be consistent with the filter you use, and feel free to recycle templates that do a good job showcasing your message. 

Not comfortable with Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop? No problem! Canva is great for business owners who are looking for a simple, easy-to-learn design tool.

Bonus Tip: Fill Up Your Scheduler

Congrats, you’re well on your way to creating enough content to last your business for the next year! However, a year’s worth of social content does your business no good if it sits on your desktop. Another best practice for ensuring your valuable content is shared with the world si to use a scheduler. Once you’ve created your graphics for the year, load them into a social content manager like Sendible or Buffer so you can schedule posts to go out automatically throughout the year. If you would rather not use these tools, you can use a Google calendar, Google sheets, or Google docs to make a publishing schedule you can follow. By dedicating just a couple hours to scheduling posts after your creation session, you can coordinate a whole year of social content that will go out on its own. That way it doesn’t weigh on you (and your to-do list)!

When you’re looking for a social post scheduler, there are a lot of options to consider. Figure out what’s on your ‘must have’ list (like the ability to re-size posts for each platform). Then think about what’s on your ‘nice to have’ list (like an analytics dashboard or monthly reports). That will help you pick the perfect tool that fits your business needs as well as your budget. Whatever you use, make sure you share your new content among all your different social channels. It does no good if it sits on your computer.

Get started today and you’ll be amazed at how much time you save yourself while also creating so much content for your brand!

Need Some Help?

We’re here for you! We love helping business owners create successful social media strategy that support their business goals, write engaging content, and create beautiful graphics that elevate their brand. Get in touch with our team to schedule your free strategy session to discuss your social media marketing efforts. We’ll review your specific goals and offer you some free advice on what content ideas could work for your brand.

Why Engagement on Social Media Posts Matters

Posted by Amy Rose

Engagement reigns supreme on social media.

Ever wonder WHY all your social media reports include engagement metrics? What does someone clicking that ‘like’ button mean to your post? To your page? Businesses that focus on building their social media engagement can benefit from better marketing reach and ROI, as well as greater brand awareness.

When people engage with your posts it does three things:

  1. Tells the social media platform that what you’ve posted is very good stuff! When the platform recognizes this your content will be served to more and more people.
  2. You get the opportunity to have back-and-forth interaction with your audience, building a stronger relationship with them as you go. And that’s really the goal – to be a resource, partner, friend to your audience. To be a brand they love and trust. And the stronger the relationship you have with your audience the more brand loyal they will become.
  3. Others get to see that people enjoy your brand and your page. Others are doing the work for you. They are showing potential new customers that they like your brand and what you share. This is called “social proof.” This helps grow your audience and your platform.
  4. Increases referral traffic to your website.

What type of content drives engagement?

Engagement is a good thing – we all agree now, right? But do we all agree on what type of content drives engagement? Don’t get stuck thinking that all of your content needs to be about your business. Expand your content options by thinking of content that your audience would find valuable, entertaining, educational, etc.

Here are some suggestions for types of content to drive engagement on your page:

  • Fill in the blank statements. (I love Fridays because ___________)
  • This or that questions (Braces or Clear Aligners? Tell us below!)
  • Request customer input on products/services (We’d love to hear what you think about our new teriyaki bowl. Let us know below.)
  • Trivia questions – these can be for fun, or to win something.
  • Infographics
  • Customer feedback (What new brands would you like to see us carry in-store?)

Challenge yourself and your team to develop content that drives higher engagement. As you share new content be sure to monitor the impact to your social channels, as well as your website. And don’t forget to respond and engage back with your audience. Be sure to show them you are actively listening to what they have to say.

Engagement will increase your brand loyalty and generate word of mouth. This is the beginning of the sales cycle and in the long-run will drive more value for your brand, so don’t underestimate the power of social media engagement.

Facebook Launches New Ad Safety Controls

Posted by Amy Rose

Since the issue with YouTube placing ads near questionable content nearly all digital advertising platforms have been working hard to ensure their safety controls are up to snuff. Facebook is the latest to announce an update to their ad tools to further strengthen ad safety.

Building on their updates on Block Lists and Transparency Controls, Facebook has added an Inventory Filter that will allow advertisers to select from three levels of protection.

  • Full inventory selects minimal protection and ads may be delivered to all eligible content. This allows for the widest reach.
  • Standard inventory provides moderate protection and is the default choice when placing ads (this is the same as no category exclusions today). Overall this excludes sensitive content and gives a balanced reach.
  • Limited inventory offers maximum protection (similar to the opt-in category exclusions available today). Excludes all sensitive and moderate content, thus significantly lowering reach. This limited reach could also impact costs.

This new option gives advertisers another way to ensure brand safety for ad placements, but it is a more generalized option as opposed to advertisers being able to specify publishers or content types alongside which they do not want their ads to appear. Until now, advertisers could choose specific publishers or categories (debatable issues, mature content, tragedy and conflict, dating and gambling) in which they didn’t want their ads to appear. For some, this will cause some complaining, but they won’t whine about it too long. They’ll soon realize you can still block specific sites by creating a Block List to, eh hem, block specific URLs.

Afflecto believes that by aligning with industry standards to help simplify the brand safety experience Facebook is making it easier for advertisers to select their environment in which their ads show.

Facebook Premiere: Go ‘Live’ Without Being Live

Posted by Amy Rose

WHAT IS FACEBOOK PREMIERE?

Facebook Premiere is a feature that allows you to upload and schedule pre-recorded videos to broadcast live on your Facebook page. All the advantages of a Facebook Live video, but with a pre-recorded video instead. Take advantage of Facebook Live without the fear of actually being live in front of the camera. This is ideal for new product launches, announcement, or episodic content. Facebook Premiere is great for driving buzz and interest before your video is shown.

YOUR AUDIENCE WANTS LIVE VIDEO.

By now you know that video reigns supreme, but did you know that 82% of online audiences prefer live video from brands vs. just social posts? Live videos also average 6x more engagement than regular video. Facebook is such a large platform embrace it as such. Don’t always try to send users to your YouTube page. Facebook videos get 10x higher reach than YouTube links. So users like live videos, and Facebook rewards you for posting natively on their platform

HOW FACEBOOK PREMIERE WORKS

Using Facebook Premiere makes your scheduled videos feel like events. After you schedule a premiere, a post is published immediately to your page. The post will include a ‘Get Reminder’ button that users can click to receive a notification prior to the broadcast. Who doesn’t love a good reminder?!

All subscribers will receive a notification about 20 minutes prior to the start of your Facebook Premiere video. Then another one 3 minutes prior to the broadcast. And then right before your video starts subscribers will get another notification so they can join the “broadcast lobby” that allows them to like, share and comment in real-time as they watch the video. And BONUS! A countdown clock will appear in this final post.

A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER…

  • Premiere videos must be at least 30 seconds long
  • Videos must be 30 frames per second or less
  • Videos cannot be larger than 1920x1080p
  • The maximum file size for a Premiere is 10GB
  • A Premiere has to be scheduled at least 10 minutes in advance
  • Premieres can be scheduled up to 7 days in the future

IN SUMMARY

  • “Premiere” drives more excitement vs. just posting a video. Get Fans excited that they are in the know of something happening.
  • Fans getting notified that you scheduled a Premiere
  • Viewers clicking a button to subscribe to notifications on your Premiere
  • A 3-minute countdown clock for when your video will go live
  • Video will be broadcast live with a Premiere badge
  • Viewers are able to like, share and comment in real time

…All WITHOUT having to be present. Your videos. Polished. Without mistakes.