Success On .Social

Category: Branding

  • Crystal Ball 2018: Predictions for Social Media in the New Year

    Our Crystal Ball Predictions for Social Media and Social Media Marketing?

    Here at JRH Graphics, we actually hate predictions. AKA a random guess! But content planning is important. So, we took a look at our crystal ball (the internets) and tried to assess the social media predictions for 2018. The perusal of articles and posts by talented writers and companies and helped us compile this list. Including some of what we believe will happen based on these trends and what we are seeing ourselves. We want to help you manage your social media. Make smart plans. And slay the year so here is what we think (aka guess)!The TrendThe PredictionsTakeaway

    Instagram Killing it With Stories

    Instagram Stories will continue to capitalize on the successes of 2017 and will continue to gain popularity. Stories are just over 1 year old, yet over 200 million users utilize the feature monthly. More than the number of users on Snapchat, plus with opportunities to tie in e-commerce the future looks bright for Instagram Stories.If you are not already using stories to engage followers then it is time to start using them. Stories are a great way to provide followers and non-followers with an exclusive behind the scenes look of your brand, tell your story and engage customers and potential customers. Check out some tips here!

    The Customer Experience from Start to Finish

    The customer experience throughout the entire life-cycle is incredibly important. Your brand is built on the experiences that customers have. This could be anything from in-store customer service experience, to seeing your items at a local reseller or seeing one of your business’s posts Facebook. Every interaction impacts brand! 

    Creating a great experience for the customer is more likely to help you gain brand loyalists. Negative online experiences, bad customer service,  late delivery of an order, or inconsistent messaging can all hurt your business and they WILL NOT USE YOUR BUSINESS AGAIN. Make no mistake they have other choices.

    No customers = no brand loyalists = no champions of your brand = fewer customer = fewer sales = bye bye businessLock this one down in 2018. Make sure all your employees.  Anyone with customer contact.  Or anyone who creates a policy that will impact a customer. KNOWS THAT THE CUSTOMER COMES FIRST. Create a loyalty program to reward followers and customers. Encourage and reward feedback from customers that post reviews (good or bad). Pay attention to these reviews. You can be certain your customers are reading them. Go Above and Beyond. Everyday. All Day. Until it hurts!

    Content Creation Still Remains Incredibly Important

    What kind of content are you creating? Is it informative? Entertaining yet educational? Is your content unique to your brand and offer greater insight for your followers?

    An overwhelming 70% of people said they’d rather learn about a business via an article instead of an advertisement. Content marketing is cheaper than regular marketing and drives more leads so content marketing will continue to grow. Blog posts, infographics, video, live stream, stories, photos, articles, and so on is all part of content marketing.

    Content creation. Is hard.  It is even harder to do when running your business.  If you don’t have time, consider outsourcing your content creation or certain aspects of your social media to a local company focused on your growth like JRH Graphics. Find the company that meets your content creation needs!

    Great Job Getting On Social and Creating Content But What’s Next?

    Oh c’mon you knew this was going to happen!! In 2017, there were more than 50 million small businesses using social media pages to interact with their customers. Great. Many of these businesses are creating content to educate and inform customers. Awesome.

    But, many consumers are starting to get tired of sponsored or branded content and are skipping over it! Well, shit! Consumers are going to outside sources to get information not directly to brands. Brands are going to need to create more content with independently verifiable information and sources in order for this content to gain traction and help market.Now what? Stop creating content? No continue creating content but use stats and specifics that apply to more than just your company. Share content that can be verified independently. Pro Tip: Look at how you are collaborating, is it possible that one of your past collaborators would be able to create valuable content.

    Get Your Toolkit Today and Start Planning:  Collaboration Toolkit & Pre-Collab Worksheet

    Influencer Marketing Goes Micro

    Over 90% of marketers that utilize influencer marketing believe that it is successful and with traditional marketing continuing to struggle with social more and more companies are likely to move towards this form of marketing. But Influencer Marketing is stepping away from mega-influencers who represent multiple brands.

    Mega-Influencers or spokespeople are not where companies are getting a return on investment. This is why Influencer Marketing is starting to go micro. Followers and consumers are looking for actual people within a community that has invested and real followers.If you are already engaging with influencers are you getting the return on investment you should be? Have you looked at other options or begun to look at the opportunities that may be available from micro-influencers or brand advocates. Also look to create a community around your brand and make sure your influencers are a part of that community. PRO TIP: Don’t end your relationship with an influencer at the end of a contract. Continue to engage!

    Rise of Augmented Reality

    Both the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X have ground-breaking new chips that allow for extraordinary augmented reality experiences. Social Media is likely to incorporate some of these features for their platforms as soon as possible and will likely look for innovative ways to do so. Possible early uses include selfie filters with celebrities or brands having the ability to project products into our homes. What other possibilities do you see from this trend?Small businesses should actively observe what is happening with augmented reality as it develops. It is likely that large companies will be the first to jump on this trend but as social media platforms change and include this technology look to see if it makes sense for you to utilize.

    Gen Z Enters the Workforce

    The impact of the Gen Z generation is about to be felt with marketers as these 22-year-olds are about to enter the workforce. As they step into the workforce and they will gain more buying power and become more important to organizations. We just got used to millennials but its time to change again.

    Engagement on platforms where Gen Z resides will be key. How are they engaging with companies and changing the way you do business?Actively observe the developments and pay attention to trends here. Small businesses may have a bit more time to react to Gen-Z, but start looking for opportunities now. Key platforms will include YouTube, Live Streaming Sites, and possibly still some Snapchat. Key practices will include transparency and authenticity.

    It’s Going to Be All About Live

    Live messaging apps and live streaming are going to become more ingrained in the mainstream. Over 2.5 billion people are utilizing live messaging apps and live streaming is making up a large part of video content consumed. Brands will need to begin looking at options to engage on these live apps when followers are looking for them.Live gives businesses many opportunities to show off the behind the scenes, tell a story, give followers special benefits and to be unscripted. Live messaging is a good place to begin working with bots, but don’t forget the human touch!

    So, What Do You Think?

    Those are some of the trends we believe will be dominating social media this upcoming year, based on our readings, and what we are seeing with our clients. We invite you to share your thoughts throughout the year below! To read some of the articles we read and to draw tour own conclusions then please visit these links.

    Forbes: Social Media 2018

    Hootsuite: 2018 Social Media Trends 

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300813

    Socialmediatoday: Trends to Watch Out For in 2018 

  • Planning Your Social Media Content Calendar for 2018

    Tips for Planning Your 2018 Social Media Content Calendar

    It’s not too late to make a plan

    Have you started planning out your social media content calendar for 2018 yet? Don’t worry it is not too late, despite what everyone may be saying to you. It is not too late! Yes, it would be great if you had started 6 months ago, but I am a realist. I run my own small business, I know that doing things 6 months in advance is a pie in the sky dream that we almost never can reach. And I am the first to say, that is okay! To help out I am letting you in on some great ways to plan your content calendar that will actually alleviate stress, streamline projects, and fit into an overall business plan. The best part is these tips are useful for planning a week of content, or a year of content.

    Where to start?

    In order to get the most out of your social media, your content calendar should be closely tied to your overall business goals for the year. So the first thing you should do is define your goals for 2018 (or whatever time period you are planning content for). Then define the who, what, when, where, why, how and how much for each of your goals. After that, decide how your social media can help you reach those goals and that will be the basis of your content calendar.

    Next up, decide what tool you will be using to keep your calendar, as a social media manager I utilize Hey Orca to manage the calendars of multiple clients and gain approvals, but you can use a spreadsheet, a handwritten calendar, or tools like Hootsuite or SproutSocial its all up to you.

    Once you decide on the tool you can begin mapping out your content step by step. Make sure you are keeping your business goals in mind throughout the process. Here are steps I take with clients when planning content calendars.

    1) Holidays

    Don’t miss a holiday in 2018 and have your social media posts ready to go by marking all the key holidays down on your calendar right from the start. If you are using HeyOrca or Hootsuite you can even schedule last year’s posts as placeholders or update them with the appropriate year and info if they were successful. Want some help with planning for the Holidays? Check out this infographic from “Social Media Today”

    2) Review Last Year

    Review 2017 and look for the successful promotions, themes, and sales. What did well and will “anniversary” in 2018? What will not anniversary but you have sales numbers that you will need to compensate for? Mark all of these instances on the calendar. For those that will not anniversary what opportunities do you have to build on successful promotions or create a new one based on the parameters that lead to success last year.

    3) Monthly Themes

    Now that you have the Holidays and successes from last year penciled in, its time to look at what content you will be adding to the calendar. A great way to do this is by creating themes for the months. In my past life as a Bookstore manager, our general book department would live by the monthly themes, we would have an overarching theme each month i.e. African American History Month or Banned Book Month or Valentines Day. Followed by sub-themes like for Valentine’s Day sub-themes like Romance Novels, Books About Love, Teen Angst etc. This is a great way to divide your content calendar as well, as it gives you direction and focus. Themes can be a great guide if a post doesn’t fit into the theme that doesn’t mean you don’t use it at all. Themes can also help you plan your blog content, write one blog a month based on the theme you have for your content. 12 blog posts a year should seem do-able, right?

    What’s Next?

    So you have your themes laid out, now what do you do next? It is time to start laying down your campaigns. Take a look at all you have compiled and begin to lay in the campaigns that you are going to run this year. Your campaigns should be tied to your themes but they do not necessarily need to just be the theme.

    An example of this is with the garden center I work closely with our theme for January is New Year, New Items. The theme for February is Valentine’s Day. However, the campaign that we will be focusing on the three weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day is our “Say I Love You Longer” campaign! So, on the calendar for the garden center, I penciled in this campaign. I also added a campaign leading up to St. Patrick’s Day “Plants Behaving Badly”

    Pro Tip:

    Add links to the best and worst posts of these campaigns from the previous year. These provide some guidance on what worked and what can be eliminated.

    After The Campaign Lay Down!

    After the campaign lay down it is time to start filling in the specific posts. Here are a few things to keep in mind when filling in the specific posts, even if you are focusing on a single campaign.

    • Consistency is key to social media plan to post at least once a day on all platforms
    • Make sure all posts are reflective of your current brand standards. Update posts that were used in the past to reflect current brand standards.
    • Only schedule approximately 75-80% of your monthly content in advance leaving about 20% of your posts unscheduled.  This allows for flex, reposting user-generated content, and posts that are timely or ultra-local in nature. This 20% allows you to be current and timely while still having a majority of your content ready to go!
    • Remember the 80/20 rule still applies to all your content posted.
    • Vary your content. Make sure it is edutaining in nature! Need suggestions on what to post? Check out the 9 Suggested Posts for every Business 
    • Evergreen Content is your friend, don’t be afraid to build a library of it. If you want some direction on this check out the HubSpot article I linked to above!
    • Schedule your 12 blog posts now and begin writing them when you have the time.
    • Don’t forget about video content and social selling opportunities.
    • Are you collaborating with other businesses? Make sure to leave space in the schedule for cross-promotional and collaborative posts. Hop on over to the shop to get your hands on the collaboration toolkit to start planning your partnerships now.
    • Take into account the social media trends we are expecting in 2018. Review this awesome article from Entrepreneur Magazine about the 10 Things to Plan for in 2018. Chances are this will be the subject of my next post!

    And then…

    So now you have the tips and a few extra minutes! Go start the process of planning your social media calendar for next year now! If you have questions or concerns please feel free to ask and check out the Social Media Tools in the Shop as well!

    Ah yes, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

  • Strategies to Expand Your Reach on Social Media

    What Strategies Will Expand Your Reach on Social?

    What strategies should I use to expand my social media reach quickly? is there an easy way to gain a following on social? What strategies will help jumpstart my social media and make sure that my content is seen? How do I get more people to like my stuff? This post was inspired by my clients and that ask to increase their visibility, influence etc on social media. And don’t get me wrong I love these questions and I love to share my knowledge with folks. The one thing that I warn you of is I am not going to provide you with a quick fix. I don’t believe that one exists. You gotta hustle hard if you want to see results!

    Some Basic Strategies

    Yeah, I don’t believe in quick fixes but here are a few strategies to optimize what you are doing on social…

    1) Get your friends, family loved one and co-workers where appropriate to follow and share your profiles. Engage with them and provide the content that they want to see, its a start and if they share content it expands your reach.

    2) Include your profiles everywhere you can with a message encouraging them to follow you along with the benefits of following you where space allows. Don’t forget to include in email signatures, business pages, LinkedIn Profile, alignable profiles,  on business cards and visible on the website above the fold.

    3) Search important Hashtags within your niche and favorite interesting tweets.

    4) Retweet, Repost, or share content you like and join conversations to engage new followers

    5) Link to high-quality content on your site/blog

    6) Provide useful and edutaining tips that relate to your field of work and provide useful and actionable info to your followers

    7) Use a branded #hashtag

    8) Get a wider reach by promoting events that you are attending using the appropriate hashtag combined with your profile name and or hashtag so posts show on event with a link back to your profiles. Its another way to engage others effectively.

    9) Show followers a bit of the behind the scenes for some realness

    10) Don’t forget to promote your profiles and include them in content you create

    11) Share your brand story as well as your story

    12) Ask this important question to your followers on a fairly regular basis “How can I help you?” and when someone responds, help them. This si a major part of an effective engagement strategy.

    13) Want some additional tips, tricks, and strategies I recommend to clients and followers? Check out this collection of social media tidbits! 

    An Important Note On Content:

    Before exploring some strategies a bit more in depth, I want to be sure that I clarify the importance of content! Content is king, always will be and that is why you can’t try to get around it the easy way. The two essentials for a successful social media strategy are ENGAGE FOLLOWERS AND PROVIDE GREAT CONTENT!

    The content you create should be aimed at EDUTAINING your followers by being informational, educational and fun. Great content will always win so focus on creating that and let the rest fall into place. It takes time but you want to be a thought leader, a resource, and an innovative thinker content creation is the surefire way, Your followers may not need your services right now but if you are sharing winning content that educates and informs them they will think of you first when they need you!

    The “Advanced” Strategies to Extend Your Reach

    I say advanced but really these are all essential things that all businesses on social media should do in order to get the most out of what they are doing on social media!

    1- Brand

    Make sure your brand identity is fully developed, down to knowing what you would post and wouldn’t post, and how you want followers to perceive your brand. Know Your Brand, Be Your Brand, Believe In Your Brand

    2- Social Mission

    Have a clearly defined mission and goals for social media as well as what success will look like for your brand. In this mission include if the goal is to sell on social, influence or educate. My recommendation is always to educate and engage by creating great content!

    3- Audience

    You can not create a content strategy until you know your audience. What type of person/business do you want to attract? Do you know their interests and needs? What problems do they have and how can you solve them? where do they get their information or what websites do they read daily? Understanding your audience is fundamental to creating content that they’ll find valuable.

    4- Be a thought leader in your niche

    Share content that highlights your innovative thoughts and ways of handling situations. You can also share content of other thought leaders and well-respected members within your niche.

    5- Communicate and Engage

    Promote two-way communication on your social media platforms by asking questions to your followers and encouraging them to share questions and ideas via comments on your social media. Then answer and engage those who share with you. Provide them useful information that they can see the value in. Don’t only link to your website link to other respected people in the industry as well.

    6- Social Service

    Build brand ambassadors by providing stellar “social service” and encouraging followers to share experiences with your brand. Provide an incentive for followers sharing reviews both good and bad (seriously), ask for feedback regularly on social, and act upon the feedback you get.

    7- Interaction

    Interact with other profiles regularly and provide thoughtful and relevant comments when commenting. This will give your brand more exposure especially if you target very popular posts, where several people will receive a newsfeed update with your comment. But beware of wasting time posting on posts that are “too popular” this is a judgment call but if you are comment number 300 on a post people may not be paying attention anymore.

    8- Collaboration

    Message interesting pages that you think your target audience follows and propose doing a featured post about them or their site and ask if they will do the same. Or work together on an event, or do a photoshoot together. Collaboration is key to social media success. See my blog post on collaboration.

    9- Quality not Quantity

    Focus on quality not quantity in regards to both your blog posts and your followers. As long as you have a consistent posting schedule that features high-quality content you will be good. In regards to followers, I’d take 400 fans who engage with my content and generate business over 5,000 who are indifferent to my business any day!

    10- Vary What You Post

    Experiment with different types of posts and mix things up a bit. Ask questions, share a behind-the-scenes picture of your workspace, or take advantage of the social aspect to ask for ideas, feedback, and input. Get creative and keep things interesting for your followers.I’d always recommend seeking and sharing the best content with others too. As well as helping to build trust and relationships, this helps your channels become a destination for people looking to learn and be inspired. See 9 Posts Every Business Should Try on Social

    11- 80/20

    Remember the 80/20 Rule 80% of what you post should be educational, informative, useful or funny 20% should be promotional… Or, as author Gary Vaynerchuk puts it: give, give, give, then ask… see more Gary V. here… 

    12 Be yourself and it is okay to be funny

    Keeping your audience in mind at all times but that does not mean hide who you are. Your personality is the key to

    Social media is also a great place to share a little more of you, whether behind the scenes shots or sneak peeks of a new product you’re working on. Trust is a huge component of the buying process; letting people in a little help your readers feel like they’re trusted, which in turn helps them to trust you too.

    13- Influencers to Influence Step 1

    Find influencers in your niche to engage with because following them and engaging with their posts by liking, commenting and sharing (without overdoing it, of course) you put yourself on their radar and may well find that they’ll reciprocate later!

    14- Use Images, Always

    Use relevant high-quality images as images have a much higher engagement than just text or links,

    15-DIALOGUE AND RESPECT

    Think about paying it forward. As well as responding to messages, be proactive and start conversations. Congratulate people on their achievements, comment on and share relevant posts and offer your input when someone asks a question. Seek to add value and make meaningful connections. Doing this has not only helped my business, it’s helped me make new friends too!

    16. Stop. Review. Revise. Restart

    Regularly using the metrics and feedback from followers as your guide. While you are doing this also review what others are doing, get ideas and see how you can do something that works for your brand

  • What? That’s Just Stupid of Course I Control My Brand!

    Welcome to A Rant on Brand:

    Your Brand Is One of the Most Important Things You Can’t Control!

    I could fill pages if I was asked. I have filled hours at the front of a class (hours no joke) talking about a brand. Things like misconceptions about it, why it is important, what differentiators really matter, what connects with your audience and the list goes on and on. But it always comes back to one important thing…

    How do you even define a brand?

    Dare to be distinctive

    What makes you different? Why would someone select you over another? But the differentiators are just the start. Yes, it is important to be able to speak to why are you different from X. What do you offer that Y doesn’t? What do you do better than Z? These all help consumers decide if they value what you offer more than they value what another has to offer. But differentiators are not the end all and be all.

    It is important to remember that a comany is not in control of it’s brand. All you really control is the identity- the colors- the language – the logo and the differentiators.

    BRAND IS…

    …WHAT HELPS PEOPLE DECIDE ON ONE OVER ANOTHER.

    …IS A RELATIONSHIP WITH CUSTOMERS

    …IS MEMORIES AND EXPERIENCES

    …CAN BE SIGHTS SMELLS SOUNDS

    …BRAND = EMOTION!

    A company can not directly control the emotion of others.

    So why is all of this important?

    Why should you dare to be different? Why should you remember that brand is more than just things you create that represent your brand identity?

    It is important because

    BRAND SHOULD INFORM AND DIRECT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA, WEBSITE, AND BRICK AND MORTAR REPRESENTATION OF YOURSELF.

    It should be front and center in everything you do. Not just because you want all your things to look pretty, but because every customer interaction, every social media post, every experience is creating those memories and moments that truly create BRAND.

    Every employee you hire can impact your brand, every social media post you like without fully understanding what the author represents impacts it. Every product you decide to carry, every product you decide to not carry. All of these decisions impact the emotional responses of your customers to your company and therefore impact brand.

    My Suggestion

    I have always made one suggestion to all my clients when it comes to brand. The first thing you need to do as a company is to define your brand clearly. What would your company say in difficult situations? What are your core values and what do you offer to your customers? But what is most important is simple… you need to believe in your brand and show that belief in all that you do, all that you say, and in every interaction with your customers/clients. The moment you waver is the moment you have a brand identity issue and in this social media age, an identity issue could mean major issues for your company.