The GDPR: What You Need to Know

5Jul

Have you noticed more pop-ups in the last few weeks? Does it seem like every website is reminding you of its terms of service or cookies policy? You can thank the European Union and the GDPR for this slightly annoying–and highly important–development. Here’s a quick overview of this new regulation and how it may impact your business.

What is it?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires companies to protect the personal data of EU citizens and residents in a much more stringent way, and to be more transparent regarding the personal data that they collect.

What specifically does it regulate?

This law regulates the processing of personal data belonging to an individual in the EU by an individual, a company, or an organization. If a website requires users to sign in before they can access premium content, if a merchant accepts credit card information from a customer, if an organization collects email addresses for its newsletter mailing list–all of these actions would fall under the purview of the GDPR.

Who or what does it affect?

• Any natural person who is residing or located within the European Union.

• Companies, organizations, and other legal entities located within the EU.

• Companies, organizations, and other legal entities located outside of the EU, but that process or otherwise handle the data of individuals who reside or are located within the EU.

Who or what does it not affect?

• EU citizens who are outside of the EU, including EU citizens who are studying or working abroad, EU citizens who are traveling abroad, any EU citizen who resides outside of the EU but maintains his/her EU citizenship.

• Deceased individuals.

• Legal entities (e.g., the data of corporations).

What is the scope of the GDPR?

Global, to put it bluntly. It applies to personal data belonging to any individual who resides or is located in the EU, any organization that is based in the EU or has an office in the EU, and any organization not based in the EU that deals with personal data of EU residents. Here are a few examples.

Hernan’s Gafas is an premium sunglasses retailer located in Madrid, but has customers all over the globe. John, a Jamaican citizen and resident, buys a pair online. Hernan’s Gafas will have to act in accordance with the GDPR when handling John’s data, even though John does not reside in the EU.

Mariah is a visiting professor at the Sorbonne and an American citizen. She wants to order a birthday gift for her daughter, Tilda, back in New York, and decides to get Tilda’s favorite bakery to deliver a dozen cupcakes to her office as a surprise. Mariah arranged for everything online, including a credit card payment. Because Mariah was located in the EU at the time of her order, the bakery must act in accordance with the GDPR.

If at least one individual or entity involved in a business or other professional interaction resides or is located the European Union, then the GDPR will apply. Note that this will not apply for any business-to-business transactions or activities.

What does it mean by “processing”?

The EU defines “processing” as the

collection, recording, [organization], structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction of personal data.

This covers both automated and non-automated means. Processing includes accessing or keeping a database of potential clients’ personal information, sending promotional emails, and storing IP addresses just to name a few.

Do you need help navigating the world of digital marketing? Do you want to amp up your social media marketing strategy? Do you want to get the most out of your brand’s online presence? The Go! Agency can help!

Click Here to Subscribe

Tips For Social Media Marketing Rookies (Part 1 of 2)

By Christopher Tompkins

25Jun

Social Media

No matter how experienced you are with personal social media accounts, business accounts are a different animal. We’re not even talking about social media marketing: most social media platforms have different rules for business accounts. Today we’ll share the best practices for each of the most popular social media networks.

General tips:

First and foremost, follow the basic rules for content marketing. That means aim for quality over quantity, provide valuable content for your audience, and stick to a consistent posting schedule.
Sign up for (or convert your personal account into) a business account. This is recommended–and often explicitly required–by every platform. Social media networks usually have different rules for business entities than for personal accounts, and most networks are very strict about keeping business and personal accounts separate. Business accounts often have access to tools and perks that a personal user would never need.
Carefully review and follow each platform’s Terms of Service. What one network considers acceptable, another network may find objectionable. You need to make sure that you follow not only the rules for that network, but also its rules specific to business accounts.
Your profile matters. Make sure that your profile is completely filled out and contains all the relevant information your consumers might want. Include clear images of your company’s logo. Your branding should guide your profile’s design: colors and fonts should be consistent with your other branding materials!
Don’t forget about SEO! The format might be different, but you can still optimize your social media presence for search results! Utilize SEO in your profile’s About section, your posts, and your descriptions.
Take advantage of the platform’s analytical tools. Most social media networks offer analytical tools for free. These tools are not offered to personal or non-commercial users, which is another good reason to sign up for a business account.
Engage with your audience! Social media marketing (like all quality content marketing) is about connecting with your customers, so respond to all comments and answer their questions.
Confirm that all of your images adhere to the network’s size restrictions. An infographic that took your team hours to design will be worthless if automatic resizing makes it indecipherable.
Your posting schedule should be dictated by your audience. Schedule your posts for whenever your audience is most likely to be online and/or on that site. Different networks have different peak times, as do different demographics.
Tailor your profile and content to each network. Every individual social media platform was created for a specific audience and purpose. You should customize your content, message, and branding for each platform.

Facebook

Make your profile pop! Always include images and your logo whenever possible. Your profile picture should clearly display your logo or brand.
The design of your page can drive engagement. Install a Call to Action button on your profile, near your header image. Pin important posts to the top of your page.
Reach out to your followers! Surveys and polls are gold for engagement. Include a Call to Action in your posts or descriptions.
Crowdsource your content! Ask followers to share photos or stories that involve your brand (a maker of yoga gear might ask followers to take pictures of themselves wearing the brand while doing yoga in untraditional places, for instance). Are you trying to choose a new design, flavor, or product? Ask your followers for their opinions!
Don’t forget about hashtags! These handy tools aren’t just for Twitter and Instagram! Hashtag the relevant keywords in your posts and captions. Don’t go overboard, though: two hashtags should suffice.

YouTube

Your content should be current and relevant. You don’t have to jump on every trend, but don’t be the last to join either. Likewise, avoid format trends that don’t apply to your brand. Just as some industries/products/services are suitable for a tutorial video, the same format would not work as easily for other specialities.
Titles should be clear and concise. Put keywords before branding in your titles (i.e., the video’s subject matter, then your company’s name). Titles need to clearly describe video content.
Tags still matter, even though you can’t see them. Tags are not visible on the view page, but you can download an extension that reveals them. Remember to list the most important tags first, as the first tags are prioritized in search results.
Take advantage of captions and transcriptions! Not only does closed captioning make your videos more convenient and accessible, it improves your SEO rankings! Likewise, including a transcription of the video in the description is another opportunity for SEO. Beware the auto-captioning tool, though: garbled captions will make your brand look clueless. Double check the captions and translations before you post your videos!
Descriptions should be short and informative. The first three sentences of your description will be displayed in the search results, so make sure that they include the most relevant information. Mention your value proposition in those sentences. Include a call to action in the description as well.

Pinterest

Curate as well as create. Pin things from related brands. This will drive engagement and spread your brand’s message.
Use Boards to your advantage! Create boards around your lesser-known products or services. Repin content from your popular boards to your lesser-known boards.
SEO still matters. Optimize your descriptions and your “About” section. Use keywords for Board titles. Use descriptive names and alt-text for your pins.
People love infographics. Infographics are great everywhere, but Pinners in particular adore this content! Created or curated, make sure that you include a few wherever possible!

As we said earlier, social media marketing is an offshoot of content marketing. If you follow the same general rules for good content marketing, you should see good results. Pinterest is just now receiving recognition for the marketing opportunities it provides, so your brand should definitely take advantage before it’s too late.

Don’t miss our next blog, which will cover LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter!

Need help navigating social media? The Go! Agency is at your service! Visit our site to schedule your free consultation!

Click Here to Subscribe

Instagram’s New Algorithm and How It Affects Marketers

By Christopher Tompkins

11Jun

Instagram, Social Media

Instagram recently announced that it will be changing its feed algorithm. Many people involved in social media marketing, digital marketing, and content marketing have expressed concern regarding this shift. Today we will discuss what is changing and how it matters to your brand–and the future of digital marketing.

What exactly is Instagram changing?

The powers that be at Instagram are updating their feed algorithm. Much like Facebook’s newsfeed or Tumblr’s dashboard, the feed for Instagram simply dictates which posts appear when you open the application. Originally, the feed was mostly chronological. The algorithm was eventually modified to take engagement into account when determining which posts should receive priority. The new algorithm will focus on three elements: relationship, timeliness, and interest.

Relationship refers to the relationship a user has with the post’s creator. This is itself gleaned from their previous interactions, not from actual relationship. Here is an example: Deandra follows her brother’s new coffee shop, The Java Company. She wants to be supportive (even though she hates coffee), so she likes all of The Java Company’s posts, occasionally comments on pictures, and even tags them if she sees their brand elsewhere. Instagram’s new algorithm would consider these interactions and logically conclude that The Java Company should be prioritized in her feed.

Timeliness refers to the when the post was created. While a strictly chronological feed is unlikely to ever be an option again, the algorithm will take the time and order of publication into consideration as it determines the feed. Marketers must now pay closer attention to their posting schedules to be certain that they reach their audiences.

Interest is somewhat vague, but it is the most intriguing change. As with relationship, the algorithm factors in a user’s past engagement with similar content. Instagram will then analyze the content of the post visually using its image recognition tools. The AI will actually recognize and generalize images. Consider the following scenario: Charlie loves the anime Orokana Denisu! (Stupid Dennis!), which has an active presence and lively fanbase on Instagram. He often posts, likes, and comments on fan art of his favorite character: Yosoyososhīdesu Nakai (“Aloof Waitress”), the mech-piloting career girl. Given his engagement with posts that feature emotionally-distant baristas fighting monsters, the new algorithm would conclude that Charlie is interested in other content featuring anime tropes, like kaiju and mechs. It will then look for posts that feature artwork, screenshots, and other images similar to Orokana Denisu!, and prioritize those posts.

Note that these three factors work in tandem. The new algorithm will consider each equally.

How will this affect your brand?

If you’ve used Instagram since March 2018, you’ve encountered the new algorithm. Both executives and users seem to be happy with it thus far, so it’s probably going to stick around for a while. Instagram has seen user engagement rise, possibly because of the new algorithm: an average Instagram user now spends as much as 32 minutes each day on the app.

So how will this affect your marketing strategy? Since the algorithm is based on the behavior of individual users, many rumors have been debunked. For instance, the algorithm does not give preference to one format over another: videos get the same weight as static images. Likewise, the algorithm does not rate personal accounts higher than business accounts or vice versa. Finally, as we mentioned above, there is no discussion of returning to a chronological timeline.

The Takeaway
No matter how the algorithm changes, one thing remains the same: content is king. Brands should still concentrate on creating amazing content. Customers will still seek out engaging content, regardless of any algorithm. Focus on crafting quality content, and your audience will follow!

Do you need help conquering the world of Instagram? Does your social media marketing strategy leave something to be desired? The Go Agency can help! Contact us today for a free consultation!

Click Here to Subscribe

Tools of the Trade: Let’s Get Creative!

By Christopher Tompkins

6Jun

Business, Content Creation, Facebook, Graphic Design, Instagram, Local Marketing, Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media

There are plenty of professional tools like Adobe Creative Cloud that can help you create amazing custom graphics and visuals for your social media profiles. However, if you don’t have a graphic designer on your team, those programs might seem a little bit intimidating. People who are new to social media marketing and veteran digital marketers who aren’t quite tech-savvy still have options! There are several tools that are quick to master and easy to use. Here are some of our personal favorites.

Canva
Primary Function: Design tool with a myriad of uses.
Pros: One of the most user-friendly tools available today. Enables users to collaborate with team members. Users can also create videos.
Cons: Users don’t have much creative freedom, as they are limited to Canva’s fonts and graphics. There are skills and programs that can help you circumvent this (e.g., creating a .png file with Adobe Illustrator and uploading it to Canva), but people who can do so would likely not need Canva in the first place.

Skitch
Primary Function: An application from Evernote that allows users to capture, share, and annotate screenshots.
Pros: Free. Intuitive. Easy to use. Quick.
Cons: Work cannot be saved to a local drive.

Pexels
Primary Function: Online source of free stock photos.
Pros: Massive amount of photos. Every photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Zero license–meaning that each picture is totally free and available for any legal purpose, whether personal or commercial.
Cons: Paid applications have even more photos.

Easel.ly
Primary Function: Create professional infographics from thousands of templates.
Pros: Easy to use. Intuitive. Lots of existing templates. Premium accounts are quite reasonably priced. Account options include one for companies who deal with sensitive data.
Cons: Free version has far fewer themes, images, and fonts.

Info.Gram
Primary Function: Data visualization tool that enables users to create interactive charts, infographics, maps, and more.
Pros: Designs can be interactive. Great for dealing with complex data.
Cons: Free designs require inclusion of its logo. The basic package does not allow rich text editing (no fiddling with fonts).

Prezi
Primary Function: Presentation software.
Pros: Cloud-based. Teachers and college students are eligible for free non-Public accounts. Mobile version is available.
Cons: Better suited to creative presentations (not great for, say, presenting the third quarter budget projections). The Public option is free, but public–anyone can view your work.

Piktochart
Primary Function: A tool that lets people with no design experience create professional-looking presentations, reports, posters, and infographics.
Pros: Cloud-based. Very intuitive. Suited for all experience levels. Over 200 templates are available. Lots of different options for accounts, including free basic plan.
Cons: The paid plans are a little pricey. Similar versions of some of the premium templates are available for free on other platforms.

Slideshare
Primary Function: A community for storing and sharing presentations, but also hosts documents, videos, and webinars. Owned by LinkedIn.
Pros: Claims to be the largest online community for sharing presentations. Cloud-based.
Cons: Freemium, meaning that you must purchase premium content and features.

There are hundreds of programs, applications, and tools available–these are just a few of our favorites. Each proves that you do not need an MFA in Graphic Design to create basic visuals for your social media branding materials.

We have a team of marketing and design experts who can take your branding materials to the next level!
Contact us today for a free consultation!

Click Here to Subscribe

The 5 Best Types of Tools for Managing Social Media

By Christopher Tompkins

4Jun

Social Media

As we mentioned in a recent blog, social media marketing requires analysis just like any other marketing campaign. The solution for many businesses and brands is using a social media management tool. But what should you look for when choosing such a program? Here are a few crucial elements to consider.

1. Scheduling

Problem: Dana lives in Albuquerque, but her brand of portable speakers is most popular among affluent twenty-somethings in Japan. She’s noticed that her flash sales events have gotten a lot of traction with her domestic customers, but her overseas customers are not informed of the sale until it is almost expired. She can’t really afford to extend the sales, so just posting everything earlier wouldn’t help. Dana needs a way to schedule her posts so that they reach all of her potential customers in time.

Solution: A good social media management platform will enable you to schedule your posts for specific times. With such a tool, Dana can easily arrange for certain time zones to get the message before others. HootSuite and SproutSocial are two of the most popular scheduling apps available.

2. Measurement

Problem: Josie is a Baby Boomer who runs an online record store specializing in vintage blues albums and opera recordings. Thanks to some tech-savvy friends, she understands the basics of social media marketing. However, she still needs to know how her marketing campaign is affecting her sales. Josie needs a clear way to track and measure engagement, conversions, and other data.

Solution: Josie should look for an analytical tool that gathers all of the relevant data in one dashboard. These tracking tools are great for both social media marketing experts and novices! Google Analytics is a free app that covers multiple metrics.

3. Trends

Problem: Carlos runs a website that aggregates the latest in science news. He focuses mostly on climatology and environmental issues, but the eruption of Kilauea has sparked an interest in geology among his subscribers. His husband’s recent cancer scare prompted him to post more articles regarding epidemiology and cancer research. Carlos is worried that he just won’t be able keep up with the news he wants to cover.

Solution: A news or trends aggregator application would help Carlos immensely. Not only would he be able keep track of multiple subjects, he would also be able to see trending topics. That would help him better tailor his material for each day. Carlos should look into Google Alerts (free) or Feedly (not free).

4. Management

Problem: Tamika’s bookstore is flourishing, but her social media profiles have been somewhat neglected. She has accounts on Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter–and she’s lucky if she can get around to even one of them every week! She needs a way to post to multiple social media networks simultaneously.

Solution: Tamika is in luck: most social media management tools feature the ability to post to multiple networks at one time! While she would have to keep track of differences between platforms (e.g., not using Twitter handles on Facebook), this feature would allow her to optimize her limited time working on her digital marketing strategy. Buffer is a good possibility, as is HootSuite. (Note: HootSuite works with most platforms, but will not post to personal LinkedIn or Google+ pages.)

5. Engagement

Problem: Cecil’s podcast and blog on local politics exploded in popularity after he uncovered a major scandal involving the now-former mayor. He wants to engage with his audience, but he doesn’t know how he can now that it has grown so large. Cecil still works full-time, so he can’t just continuously monitor the site. And while he hasn’t had much trouble with trolls, he still deals with some negative feedback.

Solution: Until artificial intelligence becomes a bit more refined, Cecil’s best option is hiring a social media manager, or a social media firm. A social media professional will be able to monitor his accounts and respond to his audience. A good social media manager is skilled in public relations, too: he or she will be able to handle any online audience. If, however, all you need is an away message, you can set those up on most sites.

As long as you keep these elements in mind, you should have everything covered! From rookies to veterans, marketing professionals swear by these applications. Remember: when in doubt, ask an expert.

Do you want to take your social media marketing to the next level? We can help! Contact us today for a free consultation!

Click Here to Subscribe

Turn That Social Media Silence Into Chatter With These 4 Steps

By Dale Griffen

12Feb

Snapchat, Social Media

There are 800 million people on Instagram, nearly one billion on Twitter, and two billion on Facebook. How then is it possible that your awesome content—the writing and visuals you’d spent hours perfecting—got only one or two likes? You thought social media marketing (SMM) was supposed to be a surefire way to generate new leads and build a strong customer base. What went wrong?

The truth is that social media marketing can do all that, but no one said it was easy. If you’re experiencing problems as you try to create a strong following on social media, you’re not alone. In fact, 55% of business owners that begin social media marketing campaigns as part of their New Year resolutions become disheartened by mid-February, sending out less and less content. Soon enough, these business owners find themselves with a dead Facebook page or Twitter account—and anxiety at the mere thought of logging back in to either.

But successful social media marketing takes persistence and flexibility. Instead of giving up on your dream of a vast and engaged online audience, you need to adapt your strategy.

At The Go! Agency, we often work with clients who come to us at a loss. Their social media pages just aren’t getting any attention. After reviewing their current strategy, we often find room for improvement—and more often than not, they have very common, fixable issues.

Here are a few techniques that may breathe new life into your social media marketing:

1. Focus on content, not promotions.

When it comes to social media marketing, there is a common misconception that every piece of content is supposed to generate leads. However, the right SMM approach will be much more subtle. The point of social media is to build customer-brand relationships. The best way to do that is to offer content they will actually want. So whether you want to create an information-packed blog or share how-to videos, creating and distributing content that your customers actually want to consume will do wonders for your engagement.

2. Study your performance.

If you experienced a significant slump in numbers, you can gain valuable information from your previous attempts. It might be time to head to your old data and try and decipher what worked before. Did engagement change when you deviated from a successful formula for content? If that’s the case, then you may have to go back and incorporate some older ideas. Did your formula remain the same, but your audience drift away? That probably means that you’ve saturated (and bored) your audience, so you’ll need to shake up your strategy. Change things up at the content and audience level. See what works, and go with it.

3. Spend money to make money.

Here’s the hard truth: you get what you pay for, every time. You should budget for social media advertising, whether it is on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. The good news is that you can quickly see the advertising’s impact on engagement. You may be tempted to go it alone and use “word of mouth” to spread your message organically, but you will soon see that promoted content has the potential to reach a vastly larger number of prospective customers.

4. Reassess Your Conversion Funnels.

Like any marketing professional, your ultimate goal will be getting those customers to complete transactions. But what would be the customer’s next logical step for such a wonderful thing to take place? Clicking a link, of course. But where are you sending your audience? To your home page, your blog, anywhere at all? You need to figure out where your desired traffic is going and what they’re doing when they get there. Install Facebook tracking onto your site to see if customers are moving onto the next level of engagement: liking, sharing, commenting, or focusing on your site. This will be a big help to see if the landing page (the page to which your links direct traffic) is giving you the results you want.

Social media is an amazing opportunity for brands to present themselves to a wide array of potential customers in an attractive light. However, sometimes you need a serious shake up to get results. That’s where a team like ours at The Go! Agency can help. Our team of marketers will help you every step of the way, no matter what. There’s no denying that social media marketing can be a roller coaster, but with the right team of professionals at your side, the ride isn’t quite so scary.

Click Here to Subscribe

The 20 Questions Every Social Media Marketer Should Ask

By Christopher Tompkins

26Sep

Social Media

When someone first signs up on a social media platform for personal use, they are forced to think about themselves a great deal. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and all the other sites want you to create a cohesive digital identity on their sites for several good reasons. It will help tailor content to your specific interests, allow people you know to find you, and allow the social media experience to be the personalized journey it was always meant to be. That being said, even for those creating a personal profile, it can be a daunting task to answer all these questions. Creating a social media presence for your business can be just as challenging.

As a business owner, you should already know your company inside and out. But how well do you really know your work? There’s no doubt that your knowledge about your enterprise will be put to the test when setting up your social media pages. Yet this goes beyond knowing your mission statement or hours of operation. You have to ask yourself what the goal of your marketing is. What do you want out of your social media marketing journey?

I created the following questionnaire that you should keep handy when starting out. As you will see, most business owners will be able to answer some of these questions. However, others will require a bit more thought. Have your marketing team ready to do some some soul-searching for the sake of the business!

1. What is your industry?

2. Who is your perfect customer? Which demographics do they belong to?

3. Do they interact with your business online or in person?

4. If you were a customer, what information would be needed to have a successful and positive experience?

5. What are your business’s basics? (Hours of operations, address, phone number, email, website, etc.)

6. What is the tone of your brand’s message?

7. What are your spotlight products or services?

8. What products or services are the most profitable?

9. What is your desired geographical reach? (The people in your town? In your state? In your country?)

10. What is your business’s online presence before social media?

11. What content does your ideal customer actually enjoy to read, listen to, or watch?

12. What content do your competitors share?

13. What online presence do your competitors have?

14. How much are you willing to spend on social media advertising?

15. What visuals do you have at your disposal?

16. Who are the thought leaders in your field?

17. What news sources can you incorporate into my mix?

18. What are the busy and slow times for your team?

19. What pre-existing marketing material (blogs, podcasts, banners, etc.) do you have to use?

And of course the ultimate question:

20. What is your marketing goal?

The reason why number 20 is so critical is due to social media’s diverse possibilities. A somewhat outdated mentality when looking at marketing is trying to figure when and how you are going to get your money back. In other words, return on investment, or ROI. However, while return on investment is important, there is another ROI that should be considered – return on influence. Social media has the ability to increase your stance as a legitimate and influential thought leader in your industry with a large following. Keeping this in mind, your ultimate marketing goal could be the following:

– Increased website clicks

– More blog visits

– Increased podcast listens

– More substantial sales inquires

– Improved lead generation

-Better quality customer service and communication

Social media marketing can do all this and much more, but you have to figure out what your business’s particular focus needs to be, otherwise your online marketing strategy will be a mess and not produce anything at all.

As you go through this book’s many lessons, keep in mind your answers to this questionnaire and determine how your goals can benefit from these strategy ideas.

Who Is On Your Social Media Marketing Team?

By Christopher Tompkins

Copy of Go! Blog Image Templates (900x350) (23)

25Jul

Social Media

When you are trying to market your business online, you are going to need some help. If you are reading this, you probably already know that. But in this instance, I do not necessarily mean advice on how to strategize or formulate your content. Instead, I am talking about members of your team.

A well-equipped social media marketing has a wide range of technically-minded workers and creatives that contribute to the overall goal of brand awareness, branding excellence, and online recognition. The following professionals should be members of your marketing team. You may find that some people will be able to don multiple hats and handle more than one of these responsibilities. However, I would not recommend only one employee handling all of this alone. As you will see, there’s quite a lot to do.

1. Manager. A social media manager is the heart and soul of a marketing campaign. These professionals post content at the appropriate time, watch current trends and guide creatives towards the right angle, and ensures everything is running smoothly. They optimize a company’s profiles on the separate platforms and does their best to raise engagement levels as high as possible.

2. Copywriter. The copywriters are in charge of the written portion of content creation. They write social media posts, blogs, Facebook notes, advertisement copy, and much more. These writers have a responsibility to keep the company’s voice consistent and to utilize visibility tools such as SEO, hashtags, Twitter handles, and more to ensure that they spread the word.

3. Graphic Designer. A graphic designer or visual artist is essential so all pictures, videos, GIFs, logos, cover images, and all forms of non-verbal branding is professional and consistent. You need to have a recognizable and unique look that speaks volumes about your company’s culture, message, work, and mission. A designer will be able to create original content on a regular basis and make sure it’s quality meets the expectation of your customer base.

4. Customer Service Representative. Speaking of customers, you will need a friendly, knowledgeable, and professional representative to speak to your followers. Whether they send you a message via Facebook’s Messenger app or shout at your brand through a tweet or two, they deserve a well-planned response. Customer service and communication are huge aspects of social media marketing, as more and more people are using these platform as avenues to get their queries answered.

5. Analyst. What is working and what isn’t? What content really struck a chord with your online audience? What advertisements are working? What demographics should you focus on? All of these questions and many, many more can be answered by an experienced social media analyst. This is where all-important data comes into play and can steer your other employees in the right direction.

6. Spy. Of course you don’t have an actual secret agent on your social media marketing team (although it would be pretty cool if you did). But you need someone to see what your competition is doing online. Do they have a larger following than you do? Is their content better? Or are you winning? Chances are, this essential responsibility will fall on your analyst or manager.

Who is on your social media team? Are they trained in the ways of social media and ready to take on anything the internet can throw at them?

5 Simple Steps For Attracting A Crowd On Twitter

By Christopher Tompkins

Copy of Go! Blog Image Templates (900x350) (22)

11Apr

Copywriting, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter

Twitter finds itself in the news a lot thanks to its reach and popularity. It seems anyone and everyone has an account and sends out ideas, opinions, sales, and visuals. From pop star celebrities to law firms, everyone has a place on Twitter.

But what about your company? Are you reaching new customers through Twitter?

How does your business use Twitter? What content does it tweet? When does it send out content? All of these questions are essential to your marketing strategy. Are you unable to answer any of these questions? Then we have some work to do.

Twitter is both a tool for content marketing and customer communication. How can your brand use it to reach new audiences and a broader reach? Follows these simple five steps that the biggest companies are already using.

1. Offer open communication

Twitter is a great way to deliver top-notch customer service in a quick and convenient fashion. If someone sends a message or mentions your brand, you need to respond and quickly. Some businesses even have a specific Twitter account just for “support” communication, which is a great service to offer your customers.

2. Promotions

Have a BOGO deal you want to tell people about? Maybe a holiday special? Get people talking about your business with the most traditional advertising content available – the good old sale. Twitter recently explained that “discount by the percentage” is the best way to push a sale on their site. We couldn’t agree more — it’s compact, simple, and gets people to take action quickly. “25% off all Easter supplies!” gets the message across in as little characters as possible, so change your promotions strategy accordingly.

3. Start the conversation

Let’s face it — Twitter is all about people talking. Turn your Twitter page into a social gathering by giving people a reason to begin a conversation. Ask your audience what their favorite product is, ask for feedback about a new service, or even offer a Q&A.

4. Freebies

Marketers can never overestimate the power of “free.” There are multiple ways to give your followers something free. The two most effective ways are giveaways and free downloads.

To enter a giveaway, most companies ask customers to follow and retweet the post so their reach will expand in the process. A free download is usually an ebook or another form of informational media. Don’t think your industry is “ebook” worthy? Challenge accepted! Any industry can benefit from having an ebook in their marketing arsenal no matter their industry. Offering some good, free info is an excellent opportunity to gain your customers’ trust.

5. Go Live

As predicted, 2017 is turning out to be the year of live video. Twitter is no exception. But what does your brand have to show off on live video? Broadcast live feed to your followers and offer a behind-the-scenes look at your business, offer industry-related advice through a unique version of a Q&A, or even incorporate some of the above ideas like freebies and reveal the winner of a giveaway. Many businesses are already making live video a regular addition to their Twitter content.

Twitter is easy to learn, but it takes time to master. With over 320 million people flying around the platform, your ideal audience is already there, waiting for your awesome content.

Get started on Twitter today by contacting us! Our team of social media experts is here to help your business soar.

At The Drawing Board: A New Facebook Ads Campaign

By Christopher Tompkins

Copy of Go! Blog Image Templates (900x350) (20)

5Apr

Advertising, Facebook, Social Media

Here at The Go! Agency, we’re experts in digital marketing. But the ironic thing is, we don’t do nearly enough marketing for ourselves.

I know, shocker.

We’ve got a good reputation with our clients, so new business arrives via word of mouth. Many people love us, so much that they want to share us with their friends and business connections! So far it’s been working out perfect for us.

Yet, we know how powerful Facebook Advertising can be, so we’d be crazy not to use it ourselves. Which is what we plan to do soon.

“Okay, why exactly are you telling me this?” is probably what you’re now thinking.

Well, we thought this would be a great opportunity for us to illustrate to our customers just what we do for them. While also helping those of you out there who are just starting out in Facebook Advertising make sense of the confusing landscape.

For that reason, we’ve decided to give you a “behind the scenes” look into our Facebook Ads Campaign. Taking you from our first meeting, where we set goals for the campaign. Through brainstorming different copy and ad ideas. To finally showing how our campaigns are created and implemented.

Before we get started though, I’d first like to introduce myself. My name is Daniel, and I’m the Marketing Assistant here at The Go! Agency. I help our CEO (Christopher) to implement our marketing strategy. Something you’ll find out about in the next section.

Our Monthly Marketing Meeting

Each month, on the 15th of the month, myself (Dan, the Marketing Assistant) Christopher (our CEO and Marketing Director) and Dale (our VP and Networking Maestro) meet up to discuss our marketing goals for the next month as well as how we’ve progressed from the previous month.

The meeting is important because each of us can give input from our point of view:

Christopher, as our Head of Marketing, has over 15 years of experience in digital marketing and has the expertise needed to help shape our marketing campaigns. At the same time, he is involved with most of our clients on setting up their projects, so knows what works and what doesn’t.
Dale, on the other hand, as our VP has an insight into our entire business as a whole. He can see where holes might form in our marketing processes and what might prevent them from being successful. He connects to our potential customers on a daily basis so knows what makes them tick.
Then there’s me, Dan. As the Marketing Assistant, I help to pull together all the brilliant ideas we have and try to make them a reality. I organize and create our marketing materials, working with other members of our agency to create content and ensure the content all works together.

Setting Goals

To begin our monthly marketing meeting, we go through our analytics from the previous month. This allows us to see what areas need improvement as well as giving us a chance to pat ourselves on the back for things we’ve done well.

This feeds into the next section of our meeting where we choose goals for the next month along with discussing where we’d like our marketing efforts to be focused.

If we’re not bringing in enough leads, do we need to create a campaign that will create more for us? If we’re offering a new service, should we focus on bringing in more business for that? Or do we think it’s worthwhile focusing the next month on driving specific types of business towards us?

Only through experience of the business and its direction can those questions be answered, which is why Dale and Chris’ presence at the meeting is so important. From their day to day running of the business, they already have a holistic view of everything, so have in mind what needs improvement.

Choosing a Focus

In March’s meeting, we decided we wanted to focus our attention for the next month on offering Facebook Ads as a full service. In the past, much of the focus of our agency has been on social media with Facebook Ads as an addendum to that. However many new clients are interested in what Facebook Ads can do for them.

But with Facebook Ads getting more popular, we want to build it up as another service option for clients and of course, potential clients too! (If you’re interested in finding out more about our Facebook Ads services, click here.)

With a goal decided on for the next month, we then spent the rest of the meeting discussing potential options for meeting our goal. Including how we would create a campaign around that goal using our various channels (social media, Facebook Ads, email marketing, our podcast, etc.)

This is basically a bit of a brainstorm session where I note down every idea we have, so I can later create a more coherent plan from them.

The most important thing we take away from our meeting is a goal. The meeting is just the first step for us in forming a marketing campaign.

In my next behind-the-scenes post, I’ll discuss our next step. Where Christopher and I pin down what exactly we want from our campaign and how we plan to implement it.

Tag : social media for business