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Category: Social Media Tips and Tricks
9 Ways to Get Out of Your Social Media Rut
Revised June 2024
Stuck in a Social Media Rut?
You might be in a social media rut if any of these sound familiar:
- Your content feels uninspired.
- Your posts lack engagement and feel flat.
- Every post feels like a chore.
- You feel disconnected from what you’re posting.
Don’t worry; we’re here to help! Revitalize your spirit and social media presence with these 9 Ways to Get Out of Your Social Media Rut. These tips will help you reframe, refocus, and re-energize your posts without wasting time and effort.
Save yourself the hassle and try these 9 Ways first!
9 Ways to Get Out of Your Social Media Rut: 3 Inspirational Strategies
Plan a Day of Inspiration
The top recommendation for getting out of your social media rut is to plan a day of inspiration for yourself. Forget about social media and the stress it’s causing. Don’t post anything! Dedicate this day to activities that make you happy. Engage in things you love, whether related to your business or not.
The idea is to spend a day genuinely focused on what you enjoy without considering social media. This break will help you re-center your energy and efforts on what truly matters. Content creation should come from the heart and reflect your passion for your business. Focusing on what you love will reignite your creativity, and meaningful content will naturally surface.
A Day of Inspiration for Jonathan at Success on .Social
A day of inspiration for Jonathan at Success on .Social can take many forms. I plan a day behind my camera when I’m stuck in a content creation rut. On this day, my focus is solely on what my camera sees, not on what I want it to capture. The key difference between a content creation day (where I control what the camera sees) and an inspiration day (where the camera leads) is this shift in perspective.
I don’t plan where I’ll go; I simply walk and see where I end up. With no schedule or specific purpose, I let the camera guide me. This spontaneous walking clears my head. I’m not thinking about creating social media posts or how I will use a photo to tell my story—I’m just taking pictures.
Get Unstuck by Looking at Leaders and Brands That Inspire You
Do you follow leaders, influencers, or brands because their content inspires you? Have you ever followed a brand hoping to create content as strong as theirs? Looking at the content of others that inspire you is a great way to reignite your creativity. Sometimes, all it takes is one great post to pull you out of your rut.
When using others’ content as inspiration, ask yourself:
- How would this post work with my brand?
- What creative elements would I use to make this my own?
- How could I adapt this focus for my brand?
By asking these questions, you can analyze the content’s objectives that inspire you and create something uniquely your own.
Get Out of Your Social Media Rut by Getting Inspired by Your Competition
What is your competition posting? Do they have a new product, concept, or campaign? Sometimes, a little friendly rivalry can spark inspiration. There’s no harm in observing what your competitors are doing and using it as a source of inspiration. However, it’s crucial not to compare yourself directly to your competition or copy their content. Instead, view their efforts as a springboard for your creativity. Your goal is to be inspired to create unique and engaging content for your brand.
Get Out of Your Social Media Rut: 4 Content-Based Strategies
Did the 3 inspirational strategies not catapult you out of your social media rut? Sometimes, it’s not just inspiration that’s missing; sometimes, you need to mix up your content and engagement strategies. If you think this might be the case, try these four strategies to help get you back on track.
Invest in the Relationships You Have
You have a relationship with every follower. Invest in those relationships by engaging directly. Respond to all comments, acknowledge likes, and answer your followers’ questions. Basic engagement strategies encourage your followers to keep interacting with your posts.
Every time an audience member asks a question, it’s an opportunity. How can you resolve their problem in a post or a series of posts? The more questions you can answer, the more content you can create. More importantly, you become a valuable resource for them. Investing in relationships is not just a strategy to get you out of your social media rut; it’s also a great way to build a loyal following.
Reframe Your Role
This strategy is closely related to investing in the relationships you have with your customers. Position yourself as a resource and an expert in your niche. Reframing your role on social media can dramatically impact what you can post. Let’s compare the content from Jonathan Howard, Everyday Guy with 2 Puggles, and Jonathan Howard, Owner of Success on .Social.
Jonathan Howard, Everyday Dog Owner
- Posts about my dogs
- Content about my house
- Talking about my photos
- Discussing what I ate
- Day-to-day activities
- Talking about my family
- Where I am going
Jonathan Howard, Owner of Success on .Social
- All the things the dog owner can post about
- Content creation
- Social media strategies
- Storytelling and Building Your Story Bank
- Developing Your Signature Style
- Basic business strategies
- Small business success tips
By reframing your role, you can expand your content possibilities and establish yourself as a trusted expert in your field.
Get Unstuck by Reposting or Repurposing Existing Content
This type of content creation became popular with the rise of short-form videos. Experts often suggest finding your top-performing piece and recreating it as a reel. Previously, many of us relied on photo + caption style posts. Over the years, we’ve touched on many topics but often don’t revisit them because we think, “I’ve already done that!” However, this mindset can hold you back. If the content is still relevant, you can repost it or change the format and repurpose it.
One key to being recognized as a leader in your niche is consistently repeating your message.
Transforming photo posts into video posts forces you to rethink how to deliver the content effectively in a new format. By doing this, you create a new and relevant post. Each format—whether a live video, a recorded video, a short-form video, or a YouTube tutorial—requires a different approach. This strategy can lead to a wealth of content simply by reframing what you’ve already created.
Have Your Blog Help You Out of the Rut
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Your blog is a powerful social media tool! It’s one of my favorite strategies to expand your reach on social media because it maximizes each piece of content. Your blog is also a great source of material to post on social media. Pair your words, a quote, or an action item with a relevant picture, and voilà—you have a piece of content to post.
What’s even better is that you can include a call-to-action (CTA) that links back to your blog. A CTA that directs readers to your blog adds authority to your post and drives traffic to your platform.
Get Out of Your Rut with These Two “Lone Wolf” Strategies
Let Users Create Content for You
Social proof is a powerful social media strategy that enlists your product or service users to tell your story without brand bias. User-generated content (UGC) is a form of social proof created by your followers. While encouraging UGC by reposting it in your feed or stories is beneficial, it’s not the most effective content creation strategy alone, as it relies on your audience to create content.
UGC helps you understand how your followers use your product or service daily. Once you know this, you can build content encouraging others to share similarly. It also allows you to create content that serves the needs of those using your products.
Challenge Yourself with a Challenge
Social media challenges are plentiful, but finding the right one can push you out of your comfort zone and revitalize your content creation. Join a challenge that is within reach but still challenging enough to keep you engaged. Avoid too easy or difficult challenges, as you’re more likely to quit. Look for challenges that require daily content creation and have a structure with built-in accountability.
Unexpected Benefits
Every challenge I’ve participated in has led to unexpected discoveries and a renewed focus on content creation. Challenges are designed to teach you something new, prompting you to review your current practices and see how the new lessons fit into your business.
Eve Voyevoda — Business & Brand Creator — Visibility Gym
“I wasn’t in a rut, but I wanted to stretch myself. I knew I needed to explore different ways to include video in my content strategy. I’ve always been afraid of video, and when the opportunity to participate in this challenge arose, I was looking for every reason not to do it. So, I signed up before I could talk myself out of it and couldn’t have been happier. Not only did I improve my video presentations, but I also ended the experience with a ton of fresh content ideas. While this was one of the best challenges I’ve ever participated in, the lessons and content inspiration are benefits that come with every challenge if you make the most of the opportunity.”
Free Yourself from the Rut & Create Engaging Content with Ease!
Utilize these 9 strategies to get out of your social media rut, whether you use them together or pinpoint your problem and use just one. Each strategy helps you get out of your head, stop comparing yourself to others, and create content that feels authentic to you and your brand. Remember, you are doing your best at any moment, but there is always room for growth and learning.
Even if you aren’t currently in a social media rut, these strategies can be used proactively to keep challenging yourself. Create better content that engages your customers and fosters deeper, more meaningful relationships with your followers.
Social Media Strategy: 9 Photos & Videos to Keep Your Content Fresh
Updated June 2024
Social Media Strategy: 9 Photos to Keep Your Content Fresh
Creating fresh and current content for your social media posts can seem daunting. Or is it? In this blog, we’ll provide you with ideas for 9 photos and 9 videos that you can easily capture each week to keep your content vibrant. These will streamline your content creation process and ensure all your social media profiles remain engaging and on point.
Yes, 9 photos and videos a week, and the best part is they feature you going about your daily life. While these won’t replace the need for professional shoots, they will complement them with high-quality content, helping you build your own custom stock photo and video library. For more details on maximizing a photoshoot, check out this blog post! As you know, I am a huge advocate for using your own photos on social media; it’s the best way to differentiate yourself from the get-go.
It’s Almost Time to Reveal the 9 Photos, But First…
First, take a moment to consider the type of content you typically post on social media.
What kind of content generally resonates with your audience?
Are you regularly posting on specific topics or categories?
What do you have planned for the next three to five weeks?Keep these questions in mind as you review the nine photos you can take daily. You can tweak, stretch, or expand on one or all of them to fit your specific needs. Remember, I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. I’m giving you these nine images and videos as guidelines based on my social media expertise and what has the potential to engage. Feel free to adapt them to your needs!
9 Photos and Videos to Keep Your Content Fresh
Drumroll Please
- Daily Routine
- Morning Coffee
- Full Body Shot/Big Movement Video
- Detail Shot
- At the Office
- With a client or customer
- Work close up
- Behind the scenes
- Life Outside of Work Shot
The Daily Routine
I made this the first of the 9 Photos and Videos to Keep Your Content Fresh because it’s the easiest to capture. Simply take a photo or video of something you do every day.
Why this?
Because it’s something you do daily, there’s a high chance you’ll talk about it on social media or it will impact your content in some way. Having a relevant visual ready to use when discussing this routine saves you from scrambling for a post idea. Plus, you won’t need to rely on overused stock photos to showcase a unique aspect of yourself or your business.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Think about what you enjoy posting and what your audience engages with. Is it your fitness routine? Haircare? Outfits? Are they asking you specific questions? Use this insight to guide which daily routines you should document. Need a starting point? Pizza, pets, and babies always perform well on social media.
The Morning Coffee Shot
I know what you’re thinking: “Really, coffee? You want me to take a photo of my coffee first thing in the morning?” And maybe even worse, “You expect me to take a video of it?” Yes, even if it’s before you’ve had your first sip! Capture that perfect coffee cup shot or a video of your coffee-making ritual.
Why This?
Food, babies, and dogs are universal favorites; everyone eats, dogs are man’s best friend, and babies are cute! Similarly, coffee is a nearly universal connector on social media—something almost everyone can relate to.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Not a coffee drinker? No problem! What’s your drink of choice in the morning? What jumpstarts your day? Whether it’s tea, a donut, a protein smoothie, or even a pair of stylish shoes, whatever gets you moving and motivated in the morning works. The key idea behind the coffee posts is to share what energizes you, so feel free to substitute with your own morning motivator.
The Full Body Shot & The Big Motion Video
Next on your list of daily photos to keep your content fresh is the full body shot. This means capturing a photo of yourself from head to toe, doing something—anything. As long as your attire is brand-appropriate, you can’t go wrong. For the video, aim for a big movement, such as walking.
Why This?
A full body shot is versatile and can be used in both your stories and feed on social media. People do business with other people, not faceless companies. To get people to do business with you, you need to build trust and let them feel like they know you. These photos and videos help create that connection and build trust more effectively.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Don’t worry about looking like a model. You don’t have to be a model—just be yourself. Avoid overthinking, over-staging, or over-editing. This photo isn’t about creating a perfect, imaginary life. It’s about featuring your authentic self, the real face of your brand.
The Detail Shot
The detail shot or video is essential for defining your signature style. For example, my Converse sneakers have been a staple in my brand. This was intentional, as I often feature content of my shoes in stories and on my feed. My footwear subtly communicates that my brand is fun, bright, disruptive, and not your typical business. Similarly, my sequin hat reflects the fun and sparkly nature of my brand.
Why This?
Detail shots and videos can be used for various purposes on social media. I used my shoes to convey an abstract aspect of my signature style. For a simpler, more straightforward example, a watch could be used in a post about deadlines, setting SMART goals, or your dislike of waiting.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Be creative with this one. It can be details of what you’re wearing, elements of your office, or a part of your everyday life. This approach is also useful for future content about specific aspects of your business. For example, if a housing form is due by a certain date, take a photo of the top of that form on a desk, or a video of someone filling out the form and use it in your post. It’s much more engaging than a generic stock photo.
In The Office/Work Shot and Video
Another great way to keep your content fresh is with office shots. These are photos or videos of you at work, doing what you do best. While a day at the office might seem mundane to you, your loyal followers are interested in seeing more about your daily routine. Mix it up by capturing different parts of your office or various aspects of your job. Focus on the more interesting tasks you perform and document them through photos or short videos.
Why This?
You’re on social media to showcase the work you do and attract your ideal clients. It’s natural to show your audience what you do, how you do it, why you do it, and where you do it. Consider what your ideal client would want to see from someone in your role, and create content that will engage them.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Review your previous content to identify what performed well on social media. If you’re a web developer, for instance, you could include photos of you working at your computer, videos of you collaborating with a web designer, or attending a training session on a new programming language. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and get creative with your shots.
With a Client
I know you might be hesitant about this next photo or video idea, so let me say this: the client does not need to be identifiable. The focus should be on you. Be creative and find a way to show yourself interacting with a client or customer. It could be as simple as you behind a desk with the back of your clients’ heads facing the camera, or a close-up video of you demonstrating something to the client, with only your hands visible.
Why This?
You can’t build trust on social media and demonstrate your expertise without showcasing your work. Featuring client interactions is crucial. Highlight your first touchpoints or ways you build trust with clients. Even if you use stand-ins instead of real clients (totally our secret), it’s so important to depict these interactions.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Professional development sessions, speaking opportunities, media events, and more are perfect for capturing photos and videos of you working with clients or potential clients. Make sure someone is available to capture these moments, whether it’s your hubby, friend, or a professional photographer. Take advantage of these opportunities to showcase your client interactions.
The Work Closeup
This is what I am doing right now, as I revise this blog post I am recording myself (two birds, one stone) So the idea here is to capture some content up close of you doing something in your business. This is great for stock photography and also to use as B-roll for short-form video. Think about things like, you writing out your plans on an eisel, or your fingers typing on the computer, or writing in a jourmal. Those all work.
Why This?
Because when you talk about your work, it is great to have photos that you can post that show you working. Be sure to capture a variety of photos and videos so you have a library to choose from, although It doesn’t matter that you are writing down the steps to take in your business over the next nine months, but you use the photo in a post about how writing allows your thoughts to flow. In most cases they can’t see the text. You will find that these are the most flexible and useful photos to take as many of them as you can!
Additional Tips and Tricks
Think about the things that you tend to post about and what an excellent generic visual could be that highlights either what you are talking about in the post, or the feeling you want people to get from the post, etc. We are working on creating a library of flexible and usable stock photos and videos for your business.
Behind the Scenes
What are some of the things that you do for your business behind the scenes, or what things would people not ever be able to guess about your business? Photos and videos of different behind the scenes aspects or videos of prepping for an event, photoshoot, or other special occasions are always phenomenal for engagement. Be sure to grab content of this.
Why This?
This is essential because everybody likes a peek behind the curtain. Behind the scenes is always engaging because people want to see the real life person behind what they see that they assume is scripted and perfected.
Additional Tips and Tricks
All of the images you take should feel real; they shouldn’t be too polished. They should not depict a beautifully perfect life. Make sure to leave your behind the scenes content believable. If it’s too perfect, it shows up as inauthentic, and you could lose credibility.
Life Outside of Work Shot
I completely respect a person’s choice not to include aspects such as children in their brand. That is your choice. What I do advocate for is that every business shows off a little bit of life outside of work. If it is you going home and reading a book, walking a dog, cooking, or going to the gym. Those are all great, and you should take photos or videos of you doing them.
Why This?
It makes you human, a real person outside of the walls of the business that does cool things and has actual struggles, goals, and dreams. Don’t wipe all the things that make you human from your business; it will erase any possibility of you being able to engage your ideal audience out with it.
Additional Tips and Tricks
Social Media is supposed to be social. The things you do outside of work are just as important as those you do at work.
Those Are The 9 Photos and Videos to Keep Your Content Fresh
Using these nine photos as a guide will help you eliminate some of the stress caused by social media. We promise you will feel less overwhelmed, have stronger posts and be able to level up on social media much more quickly.
Time Saver 2: 30 Days of Content From One Photoshoot
Content Creation Time Saver 2: Creating a Ton of Content in One Day
We previously discussed how to break down your blog to create weeks of content. For this Time Saver we are focusing on our next content creation time saver: How to Get 30 Days or More of Content from a Single Photoshoot. I perfected this tactic while working in DC with Career Coach Lea Berry and have been using it ever since—a major win! You can see some of the results from her photoshoots here.
For many businesses, hiring a photographer is a worthwhile expense, especially for those creating content for social media. To make the most of this investment, plan to get as much content as possible from the photoshoot. Our second content creation time saver will help you plan your photoshoot and maximize the number of usable shots. While each of us creates content differently and has unique needs, the following ideas can be applied universally.
Steps to Maximize Your Photoshoot
- Review Your Schedule of Posts
- Research
- Plan
- Schedule Time
- Execute
- Hustle
- Expect the Unexpected and Roll With It
Review Your Schedule of Posts
Start by reviewing your content calendar. Identify the promotions, blog posts, and campaigns you have planned for the upcoming month. Visualize the photos you need for these campaigns and begin researching ways to capture those shots. Pinterest can be an excellent resource for inspiration. Although I’m not a frequent user, I keep inspiration boards for different types of photoshoots. Printing out the shots you like and using them on your storyboard can help as you dive deeper into planning the photoshoot.
After Reviewing Scheduled Posts
Identify any gaps in your schedule and plan how to fill them. I usually recommend planning and scheduling 70% of your content in advance, leaving 25-30% for flexibility, current topics, event photos, etc. Scheduling 70% in advance while allowing for flex space lets you remain timely without scrambling to post daily. However, some months you may only need 10-15% of flex content, so always plan additional posts just in case. Treat them as your B-roll—your security blanket for when all else fails.
Research Concepts, Locations, and Shots
Now that you have identified the campaigns and posts you need photos for, it’s time to research concepts, locations, and shots. Scour Pinterest for ideas and inspirational images that align with your brand. Once you have gathered these inspirational images, start looking for suitable locations. I maintain a list of potential sites and use Google Maps to pin places that might work for future shoots. My Google Map, titled “Potential Photoshoots,” helps me keep a running list of locations and quickly decide how to group sites for a cohesive and productive shoot.
Not Too Crazy, Not Too Bland
When planning your concepts and locations, strike a balance. Avoid overly complicated setups that are hard to complete in the time available, but be creative enough to keep your content fresh throughout the month. Vary your outfits to add visual interest to the shots. Remind your photographer of the purpose of the images, ensuring they know all the photos are for the same month. This way, they might suggest additional shots or remind you to switch things up during the shoot.
Finalize Your Plan
For those who feature themselves in their Instagram feeds or are lifestyle bloggers, these next steps might differ slightly. Since I am not in most of my shots, I select three general locations and review must-have and secondary shots within those areas. Here’s an example from my last content creation day in New York City:
- Hudson Yards
- Must-Have Shots: The surrounding neighborhood and The Vessel
- Secondary Shots: The Shed and Hudson Yards Buildings
- DUMBO, Brooklyn
- Must-Have Shots: The iconic shot under the overpass and surrounding neighborhood
- Secondary Shots: Architectural details and bikes
- Brooklyn Bridge Park During Golden Hour
- Must-Have Shots: The sunset with views towards NYC
- Secondary Shots: Weather-dependent
Once the plan is finalized, work on scheduling and execution. Consult your train schedule and plan your route using Google Maps. For my NYC shoot, I knew I needed to Uber from Hudson Yards to Brooklyn to have enough time to explore and capture all the desired shots.
The Execution
You have your shots and locations picked out, and the theme of each shot is clear. Your photographer has the inspiration images. For my last trip to NYC, I stapled a bunch of my inspiration shots, directions, and must-see areas together and put them in my bag for reference. I recommend doing the same and providing a copy to your photographer in advance. Now, it’s time for the execution!
The Clothing for Your Photoshoot
Wait, even I need to plan what I’m going to wear for each shot. If you are in most of your photos, this is even more important. I recommend three main looks that can be quickly changed up with layers and accessories. For example, start with a skirt, top, blazer, and chunky necklace. After several photos, remove the blazer, then later change the necklace and add earrings. Go for easy but dramatic changes. Scarves are another favorite accessory for this reason.
Another consideration is non-generic stock photos. I had a client who did daily prompts and we always struggled to find the right free stock photos. During her photoshoots, she would bring different supplies and while she changed at each location, I would take stock photos for her to use. It made posting those prompts simpler. So, think about your needs and prepare for them.
Now, It Is Time to Hustle
You’ve completed the planning and arrived at your first location. Your photographer is ready, and you’ve reviewed the plan. Now it’s time to hustle. You’ve packed your day (or hours) with your photographer and need to create your content for the month. Stay focused, stick to the schedule, and get the shots! When you arrive at each location, gather everything you need for the shots and change into your planned outfit.
First, get the essential shots at each location—these are the shots you cannot do without. If you stay on schedule, then proceed to take the secondary shots. This strategy ensures you cover your 2-3 locations and get the necessary images. If you’re running behind, skip the secondary shots and move to the next location. Drink water, stay focused, wear comfy shoes between locations, and don’t rush. Rinse. Repeat!
Flexibility Is Key
Planning and sticking to the plan is crucial, but flexibility and adaptability are equally important. You never know what opportunities might arise. During my last trip to NYC, my schedule included three locations. However, while walking past the Empire State Building, a kind gentleman handed me a free ticket because he couldn’t use it. After verifying it was real, I decided to take the opportunity. This meant arriving at Hudson Yards a bit later, but it was worth it. By the end of the day, I had gathered enough content for the month, even though I forgot my backup battery for the camera. I was okay with skipping the sunset at the Brooklyn Bridge.
And Done
By the end of a day like this, you’ll be tired, no doubt. It’s hard work, but you’ve made the most out of your day and will have some outstanding images to show for it. The best part is you only need to do this once a month to get the images you need. The more you do it, the more photos you’ll have for social media. Good social media images and videos are key to better engagement, so this strategy will pay off and make your social media life much easier!
Using Hashtags Effectively on Social Media
Using Hashtags Effectively on Social Media
There are numerous benefits to using hashtags effectively in your social media posts. Hashtags assist in discovery. They allow your ideal clients to find you when you utilize the right hashtags. They can help you stay in touch with existing customers. You can boost a marketing campaign with a well-planned strategy around hashtags. Utilize hashtags to actively research what your competition is doing on social media as well as track current trends using hashtags. The all-mighty hashtag also helps ensure that your content shows up with similar content, which increases discovery. However, this only applies if you have a strategy and are using the right hashtags. So we will be reviewing why it is essential to use hashtags and on what platforms. The general rules when using hashtags. What types of hashtags you should use. We will also review how you research hashtags and how to put your hashtag strategy into play.
Why Use Hashtags?
Remember when you used to go to the library. Before computers, you would go to a large wooden stack of drawers somewhere in the middle of the floor. When you opened the drawers, you would find thousands of cards. These cards cataloged the contents of the library and made things more manageable. #Hashtags are the card catalogs of social media sites like Twitter and Instagram. They help organize all the posts that are uploaded daily into neatly organized buckets of things that are alike. Hashtags help you quickly find something you are looking for, and they help you get noticed! Hashtags are little organizational powerhouses when appropriately utilized.
Additionally, hashtags can also help you build your brand, build brand loyalty, and increase engagement. Since all of these things are key for businesses, we think it makes sense for you to have a comprehensive hashtag strategy.
Additional Notes on Hashtags
A couple quick notes on hashtags, first use hashtags that will help your audience find your content on Twitter and Instagram. Hashtags are not functional on Facebook except for the inside of groups if the group uses hashtags as a way to organize topics. When posting an update from Instagram to Facebook, make sure you clear any hashtags and check all of your @tags. Secondly, research hashtags before using them and make sure your content belongs in the hashtag, and the hashtag is active on the platform you plan to use it on. Thirdly, the best way to research a hashtag is on the platform you wish to use it on, sure some of the apps are okay, but the most up to date and accurate info is within the platform.
Rules to Make Your Hashtag Strategy More Effective
If you want to have an effective hashtag strategy, there are some general rules to follow. These rules include some vital do’s and don’t like the following: Do research all the hashtags you plan on using and Don’t use hashtags that have millions of posts associated with them. Check out the full list below.
Do These Things As Part of An Effective Hashtag Strategy
- Create Content Specific Hashtag lists for yourself.
- Have a brand-specific hashtag or hashtags.
- Utilize community based hashtags. Community-based hashtags are ones that indicate a specific service, location, industry or event
- Research the hashtags you competition is using
- Review hashtags that influencers in your niche are using
- Utilize hashtags that are specific to your niche
- Use at least one hashtag in every Instagram and Twitter post
- Research hashtags before you use them
- Include hashtags in your content after a few line breaks or in the first comment
Don’t Do These Things As Part of Your Effective Hashtag Strategy
- Use the same hashtags for every post
- Utilize hashtags that have millions of posts
- Create a Facebook post and leave Instagram only hashtags in it
- Use hashtags that have been banned on Instagram
- Create a post complete with hashtags without researching the hashtags used
- Utilize hashtags that don’t apply to your content.
- Make your post look “spammy” by overfilling it with hashtags
An Effective Hashtag Strategy and What Hashtags to Use
Everyone wants to know what hashtags they should use on their social media posts, and what I have realized is they want a one size fits all answer. Unfortunately, that answer doesn’t exist. Why does it not exist? Because your content is different from everyone else’s content, and because your audience is different from everyone else’s audience. So nobody can tell you to use these 15 hashtags, and you will be successful. No app can promise you that if you put in your best hashtag, it will give you the best 20 to grow your business, it does not work like that. Instead you must research your niche and figure out the number and quantity that works best for your specific profile.
Researching Hashtags
The first step in researching your hashtags is to define your niche and create your customer avatar. Knowing your avatar creates a specific target for your content, therefore, making your research more accessible.
Going Down
Researching hashtags requires you to go down a bit of a social media rabbit hole so make sure to set a time limit, bring a pad and paper, and drop a trail of breadcrumbs so you can find your way out! Now, go onto Instagram with a singular mission of finding niche-specific hashtags. The more specific, the better as more conversation (engagement) is happening around super niche hashtags. Go to Instagram and search a fairly general hashtag in your field, look at the top posts and pick one you are attracted to and seem to match your brand aesthetic.
Scroll down and see what other hashtags were used in the post, select one that is more specific than your original, and see what you discover on that page. After a few rounds of this, you should be arriving at some niche-specific tags and going, man, I didn’t even know somebody did (fill in the niche-specific blank). Make sure you are writing the more specific hashtags down or adding them to a custom list of tags by the theme which it goes. Whenever your timer goes off immediately remove yourself from the situation so that you don’t lose your entire day. Repeat for each one of the types of posts or themes you post.
What you Are Looking for When Researching
You are looking for what are often called “community hashtags” They are hashtags that target a specific service like #weddingphotographer or a product like #freshlybakedbrownies or an industry like #gasgrillassemblers. Community hashtags also can focus a particular event #memorialday5K or a particular location #NYCwinebars or even a day of the week #wateringwednesday. These are all much more specific than hashtags like #photographer #brownies. Your ideal hashtags probably sit below this level; for example, I could search #dogs, and while hunting underdogs, I discover the hashtag #puggles and quickly discover #pugglesofNY. While reviewing those tags, I find two super specific tags #pugglestruggle and #everydayimpugglin.
Next Steps
After researching and looking for unique niche tags you will want to double back and take a look at posts from your comphetition, industry leaders and influencers withing your area and see what hashtags they are using. Is your competition killing it on a hashtag, but they have no competition there? Is an influencer identifying an upcoming trend in a hashtag? Also, pay attention to how many hashtags, where they place them, or any other differences that could indicate a change of preference of your audience. I do not recommend doing this first because it may limit your focus, and you may not find the most exciting tags.
Putting Your Hashtag Strategy to Work
How to Start if Never Had A Strategy
If you have never had a hashtag strategy and don’t have lists of hashtags you use for specific posts, you are pretty much starting from scratch. The first thing you will want to do is to create hashtag lists for each theme. Keep these in a document you can access from any location. I also recommend creating hashtag lists for specific holidays, events, and other significant occurrences. Put those particular hashtags on your content calendar. Your next step is to begin utilizing these hashtags and seeing what works.
For each post, use a core list of hashtags specific for that content. If there are a couple of additional tags for a post you want to use add them on to that post, not into your core list. Test some posts with the hashtags in the caption after some breaks. Test others with the hashtags in the first comment. Finally, test some posts with five hashtags, some with fifteen, and some with thirty. What works best? Measure the success of each post based on the actual numbers. Not your gut feeling. Revisit each core list every few months and trim the dead weight and add new niche hashtags.
If You Had A Hashtag Strategy Before
If you had a hashtag strategy before and you broke your hashtags into content specific lists, I would recommend testing your lists against one another and see how they do. In some cases, you may need to combine the best performing hashtags from your old and new lists. If that is the case, just select the best-performing ones from each and create that third list and use that going forward. If the original list outperforms your old collection on every post for every category. Then you have a #winning hashtag strategy, and you go with your new list.
In Conclusion
To sum up all the key points here:
- Hashtags are essential tools you should utilize on your posts
- There are some best practices for hashtags like research before you use
- You should always look to use niche hashtags and hashtags with less than 1 million posts
- Build your own unique content specific hashtag lists to use with your posts
- Regularly measure what is working and refresh as needed.
Keep these tips in mind, and you won’t hate hashtags ever again!
The Top Social Media Trends for 2020
Top Social Media Trends for 2020
What are the top social media trends that we will all be talking about in 2020? This time of year is always fun because all the social media powerhouses are putting out their reviews of the previous year, key stats and predictions for the upcoming year. I can’t help but get wrapped up in the frenzy of webinars, presentations, white papers, and reports. Each with a unique spin on the events. Some things everyone is agreed upon, like TikTok, will have a huge year! Many others are up in the air.
After watching the webinars, reading the reports, and taking copious notes, I selected my favorite predictions from the batch. This year my top predictions come from Hootsuite, HeyOrca, SproutSocial, and Later that capture the overall direction that social media is going in for 2020. One thing is for sure, change is inevitable, and 2021 will bring even more unexpected shifts!
Why These Specific Trends?
The trends I am featuring are the ones I believe are essential to the broadest range of businesses. I also selected things that were up and coming trends. Trends that we may not have fully explored yet. I left out things like creating more videos, utilize your Instagram stories, and the importance of engaging your audience. We have heard all of those before. So I did not see any reason to take a more in-depth look at those trends. Okay, so let’s focus on some of the goodies! In the video below, I review the predictions and patterns and also include a list of the key trends.[
Top Social Media Trends for 2020 pulled from Hootsuite:
- The Importance of Balancing Public and Private Social Media Platforms
Social Media Trends to Watch Out for selected from HeyOrca:
- An Increase in the Power of User Generated Content.
- Groups Grow Across Platforms
Top Social Media Trends pulled from the Later predictions:
- The Focus Shifts to Captions on Instagram
- The Year of the Influencer (I titled it The Year of the Influencer, but they provided the information that led me to call it that).
- Authenticity Becomes Necessary: Fake and Staged are So Out!
- Collaborations Are Key
Social Media Trends pulled from the team at SproutSocial:
- Defining Differentiators Becomes Essential to Stand Out
- A business will need to Increase Trust and Transparency by Building a Communities Around Their Brands
The Single Biggest Prediction
- TikTok will be HUGE in 2020
The Big Takeaways for 2020
A couple of significant takeaways for your 2020 social media strategies:
Tell Your Story
Actively utilize social media platforms to tell your story. Be open, honest, and authentic when telling your brand story to your followers. Utilize your differentiator(s) to help you stand out from the crowd on social media. Tell your story, tell your story your target audience, tell your story again.
Engage Your Audience
Engage with your audience where your audience lives, the way they want to be engaged. Define your ideal audience and drill down to find out how they want to join and where they want to engage. Once you have figured out the who where and how to make sure that you engage with them, especially if they are engaging with you. Beat the algorithm in 2020 bu killing it with engagement and letting your superfans spread the word.
Add Value
Create and post valuable content that encourages engagement consistently. Measure success. Adjust creation to lean in favor of best performing content. Repeat
Keep an Eye on TikTok
Don’t go all-in on TikTok, but learn the platform and experiment with ways you can create content. TikTok may not be in it for the long haul but look for the current platforms to integrate aspects of it into their platforms. Think about it, before SnapChat were stories a thing? Many brands don’t need to be on Snap now, but they are “using Snapchat type features” on the other platforms.
The Excitement is About to Begin
2020 is almost here, and it is going to be an exciting year on social media. At JRH Graphics, we live for the changes, trends, and new options available to help us tell our clients winning stories! But for many of our clients, the changes are overwhelming, unsettling, and confusing. Don’t let social media control your business. Contact JRH Graphics, and we can show you how to harness the power of social media and use it for growth, engagement, and the good of your business. From providing general information to tips, tricks, and best practices to courses to a fully managed social media strategy, we offer solutions that can be custom-built to help you succeed!
Level Up Your Social Media in 2020 with These 9 Tips
Are You Ready to LevelUp
Level Up Your Social Media in 2020 with these 9 Tips!
The Role of Planning
As I have said before, content is king, consistency is queen, and when you take control of these two things with a little bit of planning, you will be amazed at the things you will have time to do. All 9 of these strategies and tips help build a solid foundation for all of your social media platforms. You will be able to expand upon as you master each tactic. We are all on this journey together, some have leveled up already, others are working on solidifying the foundation. But we are all learning, and I hope these tips help you build a robust yet flexible presence on social media that allows you to be responsive to trends while expanding your reach and growing your business. So, let us jump in!
Set Goals and Define Your KPIs
Want to Level Up Your Social Media in 2020, then you must define what Leveling Up looks like for you. What are the Key Performance Indicators used to measure if you are reaching that goal? Make sure that you assign the proper metrics to your goals and understand what a positive outcome would look like for this goal. Need help understanding social media metrics before you set these goals? My go-to tool is the SproutSocial.com blog, when I am looking for information on metrics. I have this blog post bookmarked for reference.
Without these goals and our ability to measure them utilizing the metrics, we have no way of defining success or failure. Without goals, how do we know what we are hoping to accomplish? Set goals for your social media and clearly define success. Share these goals with your team, so everyone is on the same page and working towards the same thing. Review the metrics regularly and share your findings with your team. Encourage feedback.
Have A Plan
Having a plan for your content is one of the best ways to save time, focus on engagement, and Level Up your social media profiles. If you are not planning your content chances are you are spending too much time reinventing the social media wheel.
Set Your Goals
Set a goal for yourself. How much content are you planning now? Increase that by 20% over the next 2 months. In four months aim to increase your current percentage by 50%. Work your way up to having approximately 75% of your content/posts planned across your platforms with approximately 25% free per platform to flex current events, and other spur of the moment content in as needed. This makes sure your content always feels fresh and current.
Create the Plan
Review and Utilize the 9 Essential Posts framework from JRH Graphics to ensure that you are providing your followers with varied content that speaks to them. This tool also helps you not exceed 20% of posts being promotional material. I utilize it during every step of my content calendar planning process. Along with the 9 Essential Posts, we use the Macro, Meso, Micro planning process for creating a content calendar like the one we discussed in this post.
Overview of The Planning Steps
First, we look at the big picture, including all holidays, promotions that will anniversary, and significant themes that will repeat from last year. We usually complete the macro step either quarterly or do it at the start of the year and revisit each month to be sure we are not missing anything. After the macro level, we move onto the meso step, which is where we review the monthly themes, the events we are planning, any major product launches, etc. This step is where we lay down the ideas for the posts, types of posts we wish to include in campaigns, and make high-level plans for creative needed. The final step is the micro-step, which is a task completed every week. During micro-planning, you lay in the content for your posts and set them to go in your scheduling tool.
The Benefits
Thisw process allows you to have a plan for your year, month and weeks and provides you with a structure within which to post. While you may not have the specifics of every post pre-entered you know what you will be posting which relieves the, “OMG what do I post today stress.” This process along with my Breaking Down the Blog strategy which I will discuss in the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle section also allows me to have blog posts scheduled out almost a year in advance.
Level Up Your Social Media by Engaging
Did I hear you complain about not having an engaged audience? Whose fault is that? Oh, so you responded to the “thumbs up” you got on your photo of your breakfast this morning? That thumbs-up was engagement for that member of your audience. If you did not respond, you know what you are saying? You just told that member of your audience that YOU DON’T CARE. And if you don’t care, then why would they continue to engage. The worst part, you are saying that publically and everyone can see it. That is not going to help you Level Up your social media this year.
In Order to Level Up in 2020
In order to Level Up Your Social Media you need to engage the people that are already engaging you in the way that you want them to be involved. Need words as comments, then when you get a thumbs up, respond with, “Thank you, I am so glad you liked this post” or “Thanks for liking this post, what was it that spoke to you?” And when you engage with your followers like this, you are publically saying, “THANKS FOR ENGAGING, I LOVE YOU GUYS!” The act of engaging with your audience makes your audience more likely to participate in the future. So at a minimum, acknowledge the likes, respond to comments, and always respond to DMs.
Bonus Pro Move
Depending on the situation, because you don’t want to be creepy, engage with them on their profiles. If they have a business page, comment there. All engagement is beneficial, and showing a follower that you are willing to take the time to engage them in their playground shows how great you are. As they comment back, watch what they do.
Do they ask a question? Are they commenting back in more than four words? Watch what they do and engage again in that way. By the way, why is it four words? Because four words are what it takes for Instagram to recognize the comment as content-rich.
Level Up Your Social Media by Being Human
Being human shouldn’t be hard. After all, you are a human, so it should be easy to portray yourself as a human on your social media. That is your first mistake. Instead of describing yourself as something, you must be who you are, not anyone else. When Lea Berry and I discussed authenticity earlier in 2019, authenticity was starting to get overused as a buzzword. As this year has progressed, the tolerance for inauthentic brands has almost wholly disappeared. Authenticity will continue as a trend in 2020. The only way to capture an audience is by showing the ups and downs, the real emotions, the struggles, and the fantastic and unexpected successes. Gone are the days of nameless CEOs, and brands without a story and social consciousness.
Your Winning Story
At JRH Graphics, we believe stories are the most powerful tool in any companies marketing toolkit. Your winning story is authentic; it has an emotional hook, can capture an audience and convince them to go along on this ride with you. We believe that stories are part of what makes us human, and that is why a simple story can inspire action and produce change. Stories are what make JRH Graphics different. Let us help you tell your winning story!
Content Creation Can Be Hard
We certainly know that content creation can be hard. The number one question we get at JRH Graphics is, “How can I create better content in less time?” While hacks and shortcuts are certainly available, you still need to put in the work with social media. There is no magic bullet. But what are you doing right now? Is it related to your business? Could it be “B roll” content, aka something you put in stories?
Document Don’t Create
Gary V. is famous because of this. He is always documenting what he is doing and putting that out as content because it is. Not only that, but everybody loves a peek behind the curtain. They want to see how things happen, what life is like, and what struggles a business faces. These posts are not the pretty perfect Instagram feed content that everyone knows is inauthentic now.
Welcome to the life of an entrepreneur, you can’t be afraid to show the real you. Behind the scenes content is key, document what you are doing. It is one of the best, no short cut, short cuts I can give you. And it will help you level up your social media in 2020!
Use Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Concept to Level Up Your Social Media
Reduce the time you spend creating content by reusing content like blog posts and recycling content and redistributing it in another format.
Reuse
Your long format videos, blog posts, and webinars can all be broken down into smaller tips and points and distributed on their own with a link tyong them back to the larger piece. I discuss best practices for this process at length in this post. In many cases I am able to get over 10 viable social media posts from a blog allowing me to schedule educational content out for many many weeks. You have already done the hard work creating these pieces of content, make sure you get the most out of them.
Recycle
It is true you can’t magically create a movie from a blog post but you can utilize the research and points you made in that blog post to deliver a video. Look at how you could expand on a point you made or take a deeper dive on a concept. Recently, I turned a 9 post story into a series of 9 Live Videos that discuss different strategies for Leveling Up Your Social Media in 2020. These 9 story posts and videos are the basis of a blog post that dives a bit deeper into these tips. Finally, this blog post will be turned into a webinar that shows people how to utilize the tools and strategies discussed and provides them with practical solutions to common problems.
Level Up Your Social Media by Creating More Content Your Followers Want
Utilize the 9 Essential posts to create varied content and then build on the successes of your top-performing ones by utilizing the Rule of 3 for Social Media. The Rule of 3 for social media allows you to apply a more scientific way to measure why a post is successful, as seen on the worksheet to the left. You change one aspect of the content at a time, leaving the other two points and see how it performs. I explain it in the video below.
Understanding Your Metrics
To make sense of what your existing content is telling you about your audience, you need to be able to understand your metrics. Most social media platforms have metrics built-in, and they are handy to start. As your campaigns and presence on social media expands, you will probably want to invest in a third-party app to measure your social media success. Also, if you need help understanding your metrics, I recommend utilizing the SproutSocial Blog as your go-to research tool. I have regularly referred to the blog post, All The Social Media Metrics That Matter
Level Up with More Video Content in 2020
If you want to Level Up your social media in 2020, you will need to create more video content. From Live Videos to more extended form videos, you must create videos for social in 2020. Not only are videos the most engaging form of content, but most of the platforms are prioritizing videos as well. Video is going to need to be a part of your plan for social media for the long haul.
Instead of Making Excuses, Make Videos
I have made all the excuses. I created lots of stories as to why my brand was different and didn’t need to include video content right up until this year. It wasn’t until I started losing followers at a terrifyingly fast pace that I accepted that I needed to add more video content in my campaigns. Even then, I avoided Live videos because I was sure nobody wanted to see me go live. Well, I will admit it here. I was wrong. (It’s okay nobody will read this far anyway). I was wrong about not needing to include video. I was wrong about not needing to go Live. In the past two months, I have moved further into creating videos, and for the first time in 10 months, I have had almost three weeks of having gained not LOST followers on all platforms. The key is to show up on your social media where people are and in the way that they are consuming content. Take it from me, stop making excuses, and start making videos.
Level Up Your Social Media in 2020 by NOT Selling on Social
Businesses fail when they view social media as a selling platform. Community is the basis of social media, and those of us on there selling are in enemy territory. So instead of marketing on social media, level up by providing value to your followers. Build up your reputation as an educator. People need to be able to like, know, and trust you before they make a purchase. Add value to your audience by answering questions they may have, and by providing content that is value-rich and solves real problems, your ideal client is facing. Establish yourself as an expert on social media, and position yourself as the first person to go to if a member of your audience has a question. Eight of every ten posts should provide value to your audience and not sell, especially as you begin establishing yourself and your company. Your CTA in these educational, value-adding posts should ask what else you can provide to help them. You will become the resource your audience can trust, and with trust eventually comes sales.
It is Time to Level Up Your Social Media
Win big in 2020 by applying these strategies on your social media platforms. Each strategy helps you build a solid foundation to build upon. 2020 is going to be the most social year yet, so get the most out of your social media and build your following. You got this!
Video Content Creation Using the 9 Essential Posts
Creating Video Content Stresses You Out, Doesn’t It
When you hear the words “video content” do you scream a little bit? Are you stressing out because you don’t know what to create? Or is it more stressful thinking about going in front of the camera, recording something, and then putting a video out there for all the world to see? Well, the good news is I can help you because I am going to provide you a framework that will help you decide what kind of videos to create. I can also tell you as somebody who hates being in front of the camera, that it gets a bit easier each time. You just need to get in front of that camera and go for it. Remember it is your business, you are the one with the experience and you are the Subject Matter Expert.
Video Content Challenge for June
Leading into the Video Content Challenge for June I discussed different ways you could incorporate video into your social media. This was based loosely on the 9 Essential Posts Framework that we use at JRH Graphics to help make sure that each of our clients is posting a variety of “Edutaining” Content. The major benefits of following this framework for your video content as well as all your other content is it ensures that all of your posts are working towards telling the same story and the content remains varied. well, for July we are digging into video a little bit deeper and you will be asked to create video content for 7 of these 9 Essential Post Categories.
I recommend you take into account your June results when deciding what to post for this challenge. What worked in June for you? Which videos did your followers engage with? What platforms worked the best for you? Which platform do you want to add next? Answer these questions as you prepare for the July Video Content Challenge (VCC) so you are making the best use of your time when creating content.
Video Content Created for These 9 Categories
Since I am such a nice guy and I want to help you all succeed in the July VCC I am going to review the 9 Essentials Posts below and provide you with some ideas on how you could create video content for each of them. Want a little behind the scenes here, when I thought of this blog post I already had content in mind for 8 of the 9 essential post categories, know which one I forgot? Yup, you guessed it the motivational quotes argh!
Product Posts
Product Posts may seem easy but be sure to not constantly post or repost the same content about your product. Keep it fresh. Get ideas from your customers how are they using your products or “product in the wild” posts. Make sure to highlight what features and benefits users will get from your product that differentiates it from the products of your competitors.
Video Content Ideas
Tutorials on how to use the product. Features and Benefits Demo- think simple but impactful and easy to digest here like Bounty Commercials. Go live for new product releases or possibly show your product being used in an unexpected way. Showcase how the product is made. You have lots of options with this one, just make sure you are highlighting what makes you special.
Customer-centric Posts
Customer-centric posts focus not only on the overall customer experience (which is a good focus) but this is also where a lot of your user-generated content comes from. User-generated content is huge for a business because when you share that content the creator is much more likely to also share the content with followers. And beyond that it shows followers you care about how you engage with your customers and encourages them to share without even asking.
Video Content Ideas
Yup, if one of your customers creates a video post and puts in on their social media, you can share that! You got a freebee but that is great. User-generated content is a huge win for any business. If you are that good then who am I to deny you a freebie. If you were not that lucky it is okay, think about ways that you currently interact with your clients and customers, do you have a regular that is hilarious and would love to be a ham and drum up some attention for you? The person who is always raving about you? An organization that meets in your space that would love to cross-promote or drum up some new members. Yeah, you guys have this one.
In The Hood Video Posts
I call these the “In the Hood” posts and they really touch on the things happening in the community around you. They can be lighthearted and silly or seriously important things that are happening in the hood. What is important is that you are engaging the potential clients that are immediately in your area that are customers of the other businesses. You are also providing those in your neighborhood beneficial information and helping build trust. These posts allow you to partner with other businesses in your neighborhood magnifying your reach.
Video Content Ideas
Partner with another business and feature them and have them feature you. Cover a local neighborhood event. Check out the newest restaurant in town and live post about it. Video how you interact with your neighborhood every day as a business owner. Feature some new people in town or do you always have that one dog in the neighborhood who is your best client, go get him on video.
A Day In the Life Posts
Highlight things that usually happen at your company a pre-opening chat, lunchtime discussion, shared news about employees. Remember Instagram is very visual so make sure you have a good brand-appropriate visual if you are sharing on Insta. Think of these as a quick filtered peek into the back of the house. People love to get a peek behind the curtain, and you want to give that to them. Be real but brand appropriate.
Video Content Ideas
This type of post is awesome for video content and stories. Feature a day in the life from a specific perspective and make sure the day is entertaining and informative for your followers. No further tips needed this is gold!
Giveaways and Contest Posts
Product launch, new item, a special time of the year… make it super special with a giveaway or contest. It’s a great way to gain followers by encouraging them to follow you on social media as a way to be eligible for a prize. Keep in mind that you should always post appropriate disclaimers and follow all posted social media platform rules! This could also include tools and freebies that you can offer up to those who follow you. Maybe a free 30-minute consultation etc.
Video Content Ideas
Video reminding them of a contest. How about a video of you picking the contest winner. Or a video of the contest or giveaway winner picking up prize and being super excited. You could create some video content around you free tool you are offering for people who sign up for your email list. Or highlight how they can use that freebie.
Food, Babies, and Dogs on Video
Want some more social media gold? Then post about food, babies or dogs! Posts like this help you keep your content varied and make sure that you are not talking too much about yourself! Remember that just because the post is not directly related to you does not mean that it shouldn’t add value to your followers. These are not throw-away posts they are still an opportunity to get followers to like, know, and trust you. Think about favorite lunch places around your business, a new bar for after-dinner drinks, or your favorite quick and easy meal you love to make. Keep it light and brand appropriate.
Video Content Ideas
Ok so here the dogs and the babies might be more entertaining on video, but if it is not your dog or your baby make sure to get permission. But seriously, you could do a post around food on video. Like your morning trip to the coffee place. Better yet if you are promoting your restaurant, or you are a lover of chocolate, wine, scotch, pizza whatever, share your love with your followers. Make sure you aren’t throwing these posts away- they should add value.
Motivational Quotes on Video
Motivational quotes on #motivationalmonday or any other days of the week when a little pick me up are in order. Keep the quotes brand appropriate. Try to share quotes that you find meaningful in general or on a specific day. Generally, I recommend posting 1-2 quotes a month. Also, please do not just find one on an ugly background and slap it up on your feed, pay attention to the look of it and when possible add your branding.
Video Content Ideas
Yeah, this is the one I sorta didn’t have figured out but… How funny would it be to have the grumpiest guy on your staff read motivational quotes on the video to cheer people up on a Monday! Or do you have a yoga fanatic that can offer some Monday Motivation and a tree pose? Tell a motivational story that helped you, or one about how you achieved your goals to give followers a different perspective on you. All possible ideas and I will keep thinking!
EDUTAINING Video Posts
Remember you are the expert in your field you should be EDUTAINING your followers. That means the information you are sharing is EDUCATIONAL, USEFUL & ENTERTAINING. People love little tidbits of knowledge especially if its something cool that they can use to impress somebody at a bar or a party. Share fun little bits of knowledge or inside info on what you do. Ask them what they want to know and then educate them on that.
Video Content Ideas
Ask your followers what they want to know or what questions they want to be answered and then go live and answer them. It’s fairly easy, it encourages engagement and you know all the answers! Plus it fills you in on areas that you can improve messaging or provides you other ideas for videos you could create to help educate followers. Also in this category, product demos, useful tips, unknown facts about your business.
Employee-centric Posts
Employee Takeover: Have a trusted employee who has been briefed take over your business account for the day. A few video posts in the story and a post for the feed that is on brand. The story can be less refined it is set up to be snapchatty for a reason!
Employee Profiles These are a bit harder but they are great for morale and a great way to feature specific employee on social media. Ask a set of questions to an employee and take some cool fun photos and viola.
No Employees- No Problem: Do you work with another company in a partnership for an event? Or are you welcoming a new vendor, artist, or chef into your location for a limited time? Do you sell products from local artisans? These all provide an opportunity to do a profile of sorts or even have the partnering brand take over your social media for the day.
Video Content Ideas
Do all those things mentioned above in a video. Employee profile on video (interview style). Employee takeover with video. Brand takeover with video. New vendor or partner, feature them on video. Prep all parties in advance of the video and have fun.
A Final Thought
Before you post content think about what value it will add for your followers. Is it something that will solve a problem that they have or help them in their daily lives? Is it introducing them to something new or highlighting an unknown feature of a much-utilized tool. Helping your followers manage pain points and excel where they struggled before is a surefire way to build trust. Try to not post content that does not add some value to your fans, they won’t stay fans for long if you post too much useless content.
Are you ready for Video Now?
Start by going live and work your way into creating other video content. Video content in stories such as on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook can be a little rough around the edges, that is expected. However, video content in your feed should be more polished and professional.
Keep in mind with all your video content that it should be short, concise and beneficial to the person watching. Break the videos down into easily digestible segments to increase retention. Plan your videos in advance and make sure to follow an outline so you present a well-organized idea.
Now get out and start making some videos, we can’t wait to see what you come up with.
What is Social Media Management?
What is Social Media Management?
Social Media Management is a foreign concept to many people. The list of questions I am tired of answering probably goes on for days but here are a few #epic ones.
- What does a Social Media Manager even do?
- Does Social Media really need to be managed?
- You just sit on Instagram all day and take selfies, right?
- And, my favorite… Do you know Kim Kardashian?
There is a deep misunderstanding behind what social media managers actually do, especially in the business realm. No, it does not take me an entire 8-hour shift to create an Instagram post that says, It’s Friyaaaay where is the Partaaaayyy! First of all. I own my own business. I wish I worked shifts, especially one as short as 8 hours. Secondly, this is not what you hire a social media manager to do. A social media manager is charged with creating and posting engaging content that advances the goals of the business.
So, now that we have gone over some of the things that we do not do; we can review why your business will benefit from having a dedicated social media manager.
The Role of A Social Media Manager
Each business decides what the role of the social media manager will be in an organization. However, these following tasks generally fall under the roles and responsibilities of a social media manager. We also provide some needed skills for each task. As social media becomes more ingrained in all we do the tasks will continue to become larger and more complex.
- Represents your brand online
- Manage all of your social profiles
- Create custom content for your business
- Engage followers and build up a new following
- Balances informative content with promotional content
- Monitors and responds to comments and questions
- Tracks and analyzes the results of social media campaigns
- Ensures that the voice used to post is consistent
Social Media Managers Roles and Responsibilities
Jonathan Howard, lead content creator and business consultant at JRH Graphics defines the role of a social media manager and discusses what makes JRH Graphics unique.
Manage Your Brand & Maintain Your Brand Identity
Your brand and your story are essential ways you connect with followers. Your social media manager is the promoter and protector of your brand. They ensure profile images are all recognizable and follow branding guidelines. Create posts that are branded and use the brand story appropriately. They are the first contact point with new customers and customers looking for support and service via Twitter. Some are even tasked with maintaining your shop presence on Facebook and Instagram and promoting new items via product posts.
Communication, Attention to Detail and Organizational Skills Are Required
A social media manager controls the conversation on your social media platforms. They accomplish this with a well-planned content calendar complete with key promotions, events, and new product releases. As well and educational and behind the scenes content that is EDUTAINING – Educational -Useful- Entertaining. Your brand and story are powerful connections. With social media becoming integrated into so many facets of your business, your social media manager has the power to shape your story and brand in all that they do. They must possess strong communication skills and be well organized to manage this aspect of the job.
Create Customized and Engaging Content
A social media manager brainstorms, researches, creates copy and visual for all your social media posts. In many cases even today, a social media manager is the sole creative for social media posts. They are also the one who actually does the posting. A social media manager is charged with creating engaging content for followers to consume from start to finish. They must be aware of trends and know what types of content is engaging followers. A plan to eliminate the content that is no longer essential is key. They function as brand ambassadors, storytellers and must be able to create an emotional connection between customers/followers and the brand.
A Social Media Manager Must Be Creative and Flexible
Flexibility and creativity are essential. The demands of the users and the lightning-fast pace of technology is changing every platform at a record pace. It is certainly feasible for you to develop content at the start of a month only to find that the platform you were going to post it on has changed the format or size. Or in the case of Google+, it is gone! They should be early adopters of new technology but still, be willing to work to get results on existing technology and platforms. Create Great Content Often, Adjust for Algorithm, Repeat should be their motto.
Manages Your Profiles & Engage Followers
Your social media manager is the sole person responsible for managing the day to day of your social profiles. Is the person running your social media the first person that you want your customers to see when they enter your business? Your social media manager needs to be able to communicate and personify all your business stands for. Charged with engaging existing and new followers every day on your platforms, the social media manager holds a great deal of power. They define the message that helps define your audience. They are building your future customer base.
Must Be A People Person and Problem Solver
Responsive, tactful and eloquent. Three keywords to look for when hiring a social media manager. In addition to the story and branding, a social media manager must also be intimately aware of all company policies and procedures so they can provide the right information to customers when asked questions. A social media manager must be a problem solver. They are going to be asked to solve problems that your customers and followers are facing each day.
Track the results of campaigns and Adjust Accordingly
Your social media manager not only puts the content into play but they also have to measure for the ROI (Return on Investment). Using the many different measures of engagement, social listening and much more they need to rank the success or failure of posts (and aspects of posts). This allows them to see which pieces of content measure up to expectations and which fell short. They also need to react to the results quickly. If it failed once it will fail again. They need to know not to put content that will certainly fail into play when they could replace it will other content that a higher chance of success. Finally, they must also measure what types of content are engaging at what levels and if they need to restructure the content calendar to accommodate for the changes.
A Social Media Manager Must be Analytical and Proactive
Social media is bound to change. A social media manager needs to adapt. They need to analyze the results of their campaigns. They must double down on successes and eliminate content that fails. New ways to engage will always be emerging and some trends may be the perfect opportunity for your business to stand out. However, without an adaptable member running your social media team you may end up always arriving late to the party. Especially, if they aren’t even measuring the success of the posts they are posting.
Keeping the Brand and Voice Consistent
Want to confuse your followers? Have a different aspect of your brand identity as part of your profile photo on every platform. Change the order of the words in your tagline. Select a different color for your logo. Inconsistency confuses customers. And once a customer is confused they leave. What is worse they are not likely to come back. Equally confusing is when your brand changes the voice it speaks in on social media from post to post, I am guilty of this on my own brand and it is confusing to followers. Define the voice as part of your brand identity and stick to it.
Your employees can speak directly to followers but as brand ambassadors and that voice can be unique to that post once it is defined. I encourage you to use that type of post wherever possible as well as social proof posts (reviews from clients) as a happy employee and a happy customer both send a powerful and emotion-filled message.
A Deep Knowledge of Branding and Emotional Storytelling
A social media manager needs to understand branding and emotional storytelling and connect those skills to the product or service they are selling. They need to be aware of what the differentiators are that strengthen the brand as well as how the company is positioning itself in the marketplace. Finally, they also need to be aware of the known competition and stay ahead of any new competition. Many times the first place you can identify some new players in the game is on social media.
Does a Social Media Manager Just Take Selfies for Instagram?
I hope at this point, we all know that this is not the case. A social media manager holds an ever-increasing role in your business. They are an integral part of marketing and branding strategies. They are content creators that must create engaging content that will grow an audience and create followers for life. A social media manager must create and deliver a great deal of content each week as well as to measure the impact of that content. And if that is not enough, the entire job can change at the drop of a hat. Once again, a great motto for any social media manager should be…
Create Great Content Often, Adjust for Algorithm, Repeat!
Oh, you guys did get one question right… Of course, I know Kim Kardashian, totally bestiesWhat Does JRH Graphics Provide that is Unique?
Social Media Managers are a dime a dozen. There are many solutions available to create content for social media. Hundreds of people create logos and more people are entering the brand storytelling arena. Many of these people have little to no business experience. They went to school and studied advertising or social media marketing and know how to do that.
That is not JRH Graphics. We understand the day to day of business because before we started our own we spent 20 years in business. We learned the ins and outs of social media before it was commonplace among businesses because we worked on college campuses and “grew up” on the cutting edge of it. We have faced hundreds of challenges and created hundreds of solutions. With each new company we work with we have added to our toolbelt and made these tools available to other small businesses because when one of us succeeds we all succeed. A listing of the available tools can be seen here.
We Know Business
Running a business and promoting a business are two full-time jobs, each with different skill sets. The more time you take to promote your business the less time you have to run it and the time you take running your business impacts your ability to expand your network of followers, nurture leads and discover new revenue feeds. Having a social media manager with 20 years of business experience allows you to grow your business while not losing sight of the day to day because the team at JRH Graphics identifies opportunities to grow and nurtures those opportunities in conjunction with your team.
JRH Graphics helps you build your business via social media. We help you define a story that will engage by highlighting this story and your differentiators on social media. This establishes you and your business as a leader in your field. This works to activate your social media networks and local business networks. Once your network has been activated you begin establishing a collaborative relationship with them, allowing you to both grow your businesses and networks.
Our Clients are Proof
Jonathan has been a huge support for our small business. When we brought him on as our PR guy we also got a business consultant that truly cares about the success of our business. He is smart, savvy, innovative, and a risk taker that we trust completely. He has helped grow our business and introduced us to new revenue streams that have proved lucrative.
-Cody Alexander, Urban Jungle DC
JRH Graphics will help you become the smart, savvy, innovative business that takes the right risks and see the benefits.
Jonathan is fantastic support for my small business – he’s helped me scale quickly and helped me achieve so much through social media and engaging with a broader audience.
-Lea Berry, Berry Coaching and Consulting
We will help you scale quickly and reach your goals via the power of social media.
Choose JRH Graphics and grow your business.
Social Media Management Plus with JRH Graphics
With JRH Graphics you get a social media manager and much more. The knowledge and experience. The drive to push to be better. A stubborn man who refuses to take no for an answer. Creative line pusher. Dedicated partner. JRH Graphics is part of your team!
2019 Social Media Stats and Best Practices
2019 Social Media Stats and Best Practices
We recently took a look at some of the top social media stats for 2019. We wanted to see what the numbers were telling us about the state of social media and social media marketing. From this, we decided on some key areas new businesses could focus on. To round it all out, we added in some best practices. If you are just starting to promote your business via social media, or want to revise your strategy… here is a good place to start!
Before The Stats, Let’s Review Some Basics
First, and foremost a basic that is often times forgotten. The goal of social media is not to sell. Your goal is to engage followers with content that fills a need. The 80/20 Rule is the Golden Rule of Social Media. It states that 80% of what you post should be informational, educational and entertaining. Only 20% should be promotional.
Some additional guidelines include making sure that your company story is relatable. Only Posting Content that is Brand Appropriate, and being authentic and true to your brand. We even encourage you to be a little bit funny but remember humor can be tricky. Make sure you will not offend anyone and always be polite.
Following these basic rules will ensure that you are creating and distributing quality content that adds value to your followers and your business. Now, let’s get on with the show…. errr one-minute mini video, read fast!
Planning and Organization
Reviewing the tips in that quick video, I am reminded of the importance of proper planning and scheduling. There is no other way to ensure a strong social media presence. Without planning you will not be able to ensure that your content fully aligns with your brand. It will be impossible to be sure you are presenting posts that are cohesive across all platforms. Planning also allows you to schedule a well-rounded selection of posts that “Edutain” your followers. Are you looking for the best things to post about on Social Media as a Business? Take A Look at our 9 Essential Posts Blog and if you want you can even grab a Free Copy of Our 9 Essential Posts for Businesses Worksheet.
We recommend creating a social media planning calendar and regularly updating it with key campaigns, events and other occurrences that will impact your business. Then organize your posts making sure that they are appropriate for the time of year. Review it regularly to ensure the content you are presenting is varied and adds value. Social media management software such as Hootsuite and HeyOrca (if you need approvals or are running multiple accounts) also have great tools that will help you plan, stay organized and post regularly to all your platforms.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Now, let’s dig into the numbers. They say numbers don’t lie. I have tried to prove this theory wrong, and while I have successfully gotten people to agree that numbers may not tell the full story we have to stop short of saying they lie. What are some of the social media stats telling us and how can we adjust our strategy to expand on successes or compensate for shortfalls?
We selected three areas to discuss. First, how to stand out in a crowded marketplace of 2 Billion. Then we took a look at some of the social selling stats and provided some tips on this “trend” that isn’t going to go away. Finally, we take a look at the importance of serving your customer through your social media platforms.
2 Billion Users and Counting
Social media continues to become more ingrained in our daily lives. More people are accessing at least one social media platform every day. More businesses are using social media to reach customers. Facebook, which is still the largest social media platform, alone has 2 billion active users. Facebook also has 65 million active business pages.
The landscape is crowded and a tremendous amount of content is being added every single day. 100 million pictures and videos are uploaded every day to Instagram. If you are not creating quality content for both your feed and your stories you will be forgotten. Quality content is content that engages followers, has the potential to go viral and is representative of your company. Failing to create quality content and share it regularly will result in less brand awareness, engagement will continue to fall and the cost of doing business on social media will rise.
Stand Out In The Crowd
It is easy for your posts to get lost on social media nowadays. Stock photos, overly generic copy, fake authenticity, and recycled posts will not get you noticed. Flashy misleading headlines and fake promises will get you blocked. In order to avoid these pitfalls make sure your content makes sense for your brand and is adding value. Think about your audience and what they need that you can offer, then give it to them.
Posts that include user-generated content are more likely to engage followers. Encourage followers, customers, employees, brand ambassadors, influencers and friends, and family to engage with your company on social media. Build relationships with those who engage with you on social media, keep a short list of likes and dislikes and notify them if you see something you are certain they will love. A little effort like this goes a long way and will be noticed. Look into possible collaborations. Befriend an Influencer. And lastly, create more video content. Video is still hot and people are more likely to engage with it.
When you see numbers over a billion it’s natural to feel like its a mountain you will never climb. The beauty of social is that success is built one story at a time, and one customer at a time. Take the time to cultivate the relationships and you will begin to climb that mountain.
Increase in Social Selling
Followers being inspired to purchase an item because of something they saw on social media or discovering a new item that they want to purchase on social media is great news for businesses that have items to sell online. Customers are growing more accustomed to the concept of social selling and feel more comfortable making purchases via social media. These stats also reflect the availability of new features in Instagram and Facebook that allow companies to directly link products to posts, the rise of influencer marketing, and increased visibility on social media for startups.
If you are selling products and have an online store, I recommend getting social selling up and running, as I don’t see this trend going away anytime soon. As a matter of fact, stats like 49% of people say that the availability of easy payment options like ApplePay or GooglePay on social media platforms would increase the likelihood of them making a purchase and 50% of Gen Z view social media as the most relevant advertising channel suggest we will be looking at social selling for a long time.
Once you have the basics set up you can directly link to your products in posts, your Facebook page can have an up to date shop section with all of your products. You can feature products directly on your Facebook page. JRH Graphics has a Facebook store and regularly links to items in his IG posts and Stories.
Are you already utilizing social selling for your company, please share your best practices, we would love to hear from you!
Serving Customers via Social Media
With the rise of social selling, users utilizing social media to research products, and the fact that 45% of consumers go to social media first if they have a question or an issue about a product or brand it is clear that social media is no longer just a marketing platform. Social media is now another storefront and another chance to make a first impression. Your social media is part of your customers’ journey and one part of the omnichannel experience they will have with your company.
The Other 12%?
88% of social marketers believe it is important to serve customers via social media platforms. My question is what are the other 12% thinking? Social media is part of your customer journey, it is where they go to research your products, buy your products, and see if they have a friend that has used your product. If you are not available on social media to assist someone who wants your product YOU LOST A SALE!
Social media is a storefront and it is a storefront that needs to be manned. Whoever is managing the interactions needs to be well versed in your product and policies and has to be able to answer questions in a timely manner.
Social media is a chance at a first impression, and a way to continue telling your story. Your social media needs to reflect your brand and your story. Your social media should be easily recognizable. If I go to your store, your website, your social media platforms it should all be connected.
A bad experience on social media could end a relationship with a company. Just take a second to think about this stat. 51% of people would unfollow a brand if they posted irritating content.
Still thinking? Yeah, you got it you lost a follower, you lost a customer! Their customer journey just ended because of something you posted on Instagram. Ouch. This is equal to a customer having a bad interaction at your store.
A Stat That Drives Home the Point: Social Media Can Not Be Ignored
That one statistic alone drove home a very important point for me. Your social media platforms are equal to your store, your website, and the interactions that your customers have with you. Social media is no longer something for the marketing team to worry about, it is as big of a big picture item as anything, and it can’t be ignored.We reviewed the stats, made a few suggestions and we hope you have some jumping off points. If you need help coming up with a plan that works for your business please reach out to us here at JRH Graphics. We would love to help you craft your story, engage new followers, and build your business.Sources
How to Win with LinkedIn! Starting Out and Strategies for Success
How to Win with LinkedIn: Strategies for Starting Out and For Continued Success!
Are you just starting to develop a social media strategy for your business? Do you think you want to be a thought leader but not sure what that entails? Is LinkedIn on your radar but you are not sure if it is the right platform for you? Well, I am here to help. This post is aimed at helping you determine if LinkedIn is the right platform for you and give you tips on how to win with LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool for businesses. Especially those businesses looking to win over other businesses as clients. A successful LinkedIn strategy can really help increase the buzz around your business. LinkedIn can help you gain leads, recruit qualified candidates, network, and establish yourself as a leader in your field. If you are still not sure if LinkedIn is right for your business, check out this infographic from the team at coschedule.com.
First Steps to Developing Your LinkedIn Strategy
Ok… you looked at those stats, and you said to yourself, yeah let’s do this, LinkedIn is the place for me. Great! Now, what is your first step?
Well, as is the case with any social media platform you need to decide what you want to get out of your efforts. To do this you first need to set goals. Then make sure that the goals you set for social align with business goals.
Common Goals
Some common goals for LinkedIn users include lead generation, recruitment, networking, collaborating, keeping your business informed, and establishing yourself as a thought leader. Many businesses will select a couple goals and focus their efforts on them. This is a smart starting point as I recommend only picking two goals to start out with and measure.
The Most Important Goal In My Opinion
I would argue that one goal for every business on LinkedIn should be establishing themselves as a thought leader. Here is why. Establishing yourself/brand/business as a thought leader is a smart goal for the long game. The long game is ever so important and ignored with social media. Establishing yourself as a leader, innovator, thinker, and smart business owner will naturally help you generate leads. It will help you increase your network, attract better candidates and engage followers on your social media platform.
I promise I will get into how you establish yourself as a leader a bit later.
Step 2 for Winning on LinkedIn
Step 2 is to determine who your audience is. One thing that I always need to remind businesses is that they need to find their niche. You can’t be everything to everyone, no matter how hard you try.
Figure out who your audience is, where they reside, what they like. Once you have figured that out then create and share content that they want. Your content should add value, solve a problem, or provide interesting and informative insight. This is one of the ways that a LinkedIn strategy does not differ from any other social media strategy. Your goal… EDUTAIN!
Step 3: Before We Discuss What to Share
So, Step 3 is important. It is more important than what you share, and often the step that is often forgotten. I am putting it before what you should share in hopes that you will read it. I fear that if it were step 4 after what to share it would be ignored.
What is Step 3 Already
Step 3: Be active. Post regularly. Comment regularly. Respond to People. Engage Followers. Engage Possible Collaborators. ADD VALUE. Get involved in groups and actively participate, don’t be afraid of sharing your ideas, your thoughts, but also be open to listening and learning. Others are trying to add value as well and you can learn a lot from the folks on LinkedIn.
Ask questions. Asking questions shows a willingness to learn. Asking questions shows followers you care about whats new and what matters to them.
Engagement and Value for the Win
Again, as with all social media engagement is key, but adding value to this engagement is essential. Provide solutions, give out tips and tricks. Let people in on your secrets. This builds a foundation of trust and allows you to become an asset to followers. Gary Vaynerchuk describes these as your “jabs” and smartly recommends to go all in on your jabs. Just simply provide useful information with no sales pitch. Not even a hidden one.
This added value, these jabs, are the basis of how you establish yourself as a thought leader. Your long-form content you are sharing will be based on providing this useful information, with no sales pitch. You will be providing content to inform and entertain your followers.
Step 4 What to Share…
So, the final step for you LinkedIn Strategy is figuring out how you actually become a thought leader. That involves sharing the right content, geared at the audience you have targeted. Making sure that the content you share is informative and that you are engaging with people on topics surrounding this content.
This step of your LinkedIn Strategy involves sharing long-form content that is engaging and interesting. Content that is innovative or provokes thought and conversation. Infographics, video blogs, written blogs, case studies etc are all perfect for sharing on LinkedIn. In my opinion, the content shared by an average business should consist of 1-2 original long form blogs or video-blogs per week, 1 infographic or video that solves a common problem and 1-2 shared pieces of content that you comment on. Now, I know that = only 3-5 posts per week what else will you do to fill the 7 days.
Turkey Sandwiches and Other Great Things About LinkedIn
Here are a few notes on LinkedIn content…
- Unlike Instagram people are not logging in and checking your content multiple times a day so posting 5 times a week is okay.
- Engage in several groups and share your content in groups to magnify your reach
- Treat your original long-form content as a Thanksgiving Turkey and your LinkedIn posts as turkey sandwiches.
- Example: I could post this blog today and comment on the infographic I shared from www.coschedule.com in the first section of this post. Then on Friday I could post this same blog with another image and comment on Step 1 deciding on your social media goals, then the following Wednesday discuss my obsession with Gary Vee and his jab, jab, jab right hook theory, etc etc. Your captions to what you share and the followup engagement as well as conversations you start allow you to do this and win.
As with all social media, a plan is essential, goals are essential and being active and engaging followers is a must. That means that you need to be willing to dedicate time to being on LinkedIn. It is also essential to understand that all of social media is a long game, you will see your metrics rise by being active but you may not see leads rolling in right away. Have patience. Post consistently over a long period of time. Engage and provide valuable insight and the social media game will pay off. I promise.
Need help managing your social media check out some of my resources.
Help Planning Your Social Media Content
Predictions for Social Media in 2018
Strategies to Expand Your Reach
Or reach out directly and set up your Free 30 Minute Social Media Consultation