Creating A KPI Measurement Plan

19Sep

It’s time to talk about KPI for your ROI, or key performance indicators for your return on investment. Analysis of these figures are extremely important because it’s what really drives business growth.

Since its genesis, social media has rapidly evolved, becoming a landscape which focuses heavily on quality over quantity. This is a proven truth due to the number of businesses investing big money into their social media budgeting.

Sharp marketers have the know-how to develop social media strategies that provide a foolproof value proposal measuring the appropriate data and pivoting when needed to reach business targets. With this strategy, the value always presents itself through the measurement of the correct social media KPI data.

So how do we define our bottom-line marketing needs through key performance indicators?

In order to discover this answer, first, it’s necessary that you define your social media marketing needs. For example, do you need to reach new audiences? Or are you wanting to ramp-up sales for a new service or product launch? These are just some of the questions you can ask yourself to pinpoint this answer.

After you have defined your critical marketing needs, you can now define measurable goals and set your own key performance indicators.

Here are some useful KPIs to consider:

Audience tracking – Track this demographic data with a social media analytics tool such as Google Analytics to prove campaign progress. When you compare this data against follower growth data, you’re enabled to track if your growth is coming from your chosen markets. Audience tracking also highlights customer trends and recognizes shifts in behavior.

In this particular KPI, you’ll want to measure what your customers are saying as well. Consider tracking your number of direct mentions using a social listening tool that offers a keyword search function.

Engagement measurement – This is possibly one of the most important measurements because it indicates that people cared about what you had to say, resulting in some action. The engagement metric highlights those you should be targeting in your retention efforts as well. Lucky for us, engagement is simple to measure, especially with tools like Google Analytics for a no-nonsense way of gathering this data.

Influence – This can be a subjective metric and solely relies on your business or organization’s perspective for definition. However, no matter how it’s defined, you’ll essentially analyze your engagement metric and determine if the sentiment is positive, neutral, or negative and this will give you an influence measurement, answering the question of if your campaign is being well received by your targets or if it’s a flop.

Lead generation funnel – Exposure, awareness, and engagement compose this measurement funnel. You can define your impact and presence through these social channels by understanding your campaign’s reach, engagement, and influence.

After you’ve tracked this information, it’s time to organize it. Do so by using something as simple as excel to highlight metrics mattering most to your organization. A good way to go about this is creating a tab for high-level overview of your all of your campaigns and a tab for the period of time the report is on. Tip: Use the same format you would use if you were reporting on a traditional non-social media campaign.

Conversion – The ultimate goal is to convert the user to commit to your desired action, correct? Because of this, the most important metric is your conversion rate. This reflects the number of casual users who performed the action asked of them. An increase in conversion rate is the best way to prove the success of your social campaign.

One of the best things about using social media marketing is the tremendous amount of data that’s provided to marketers. You can make well-informed marketing decisions to reinforce your ROI by looking at this data objectively. In addition to quantified action tracking, keep in mind to always take full advantage of the raw feedback published by users too.

Who Is On Your Social Media Marketing Team?

By Christopher Tompkins

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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?

How Do I Optimize My Company’s Social Media Profile Imagery?

By Christopher Tompkins

19Jul

Facebook, Social Media

Once you finally decide that your company needs social media, you have some work to do. The truth is that just having a couple social media profiles isn’t enough — they must be fully optimized.

What does it mean to optimize a social media profile? Essentially, it means to take every step possible to personalize your profile and load it with as much information about your company as possible.

Optimization will help your marketing efforts on multiple levels. First, by ensuring that your profile is loaded with information, your company will look legitimate and professional. Secondly, when done correctly, a fully optimized social media profile will improve searchability and visibility online. Finally, by taking the time to complete the following steps, your customers will be able to use your social media profiles as intended – as a resource. Certain platforms have algorithms and features that will only work if your page is optimized. An example of this would be if you have your hours posted on Facebook, users will be able to clearly see if you are open at that time with a bright green “Open Now” sign is lit, and will also inform your user if you are available for chat.

Remember when you first made your personal Facebook page and decided to skip entering where you went to high school or your birthday? Well, as a business owner, you do not have that luxury in the world of marketing. You want to stuff your profiles to the brim with content!

Check out the following tips that will help you as you begin optimizing a profile. For this first blog, we’re going to cover the two first visuals you will need – a profile image and a cover image.

Choosing An Appropriate Profile Image

The first step to optimizing your profile is to pick an appropriate profile picture. This is also one of the very first choices to make in your social media marketing in general because when you are creating your page initially you will be prompted to choose a profile image. While you will be sending out tons of visuals in your social media journey, this is perhaps one of the most important visuals of your marketing.

Typically, companies incorporate their current logo into their profile picture so there is no confusion as to whose page it is. Ensure that profile picture is clear and easy to decipher when it’s just a tiny avatar next to your content. People will see your profile picture on a regular basis when your content pops up on their feeds, so make sure it is unique and recognizable.

One of the most important rules to consider when choosing a profile image is to make sure the image is high resolution. Nothing makes your company look amateurish more than a blurry or pixilated picture. This is especially the case when you choose a logo as your profile pic.

What else makes your company look amateurish? A cut off profile picture. You ever take a picture and the tallest person’s head gets cut off or maybe something important is just out of frame? It looks bad, right? Well, it looks even worse if a business does this. This is when you are going to need to pay attention. Each social media platform have different dimensions. Some of them have a square frame while others have circles. Annoying, right? Well, to ensure your image looks just right, do a quick Google search or explore the platform’s FAQ section for the currently preferred dimensions. They change all the time and as such, it’s best to check out the most updated information.

If you are a smart marketer, you are creating a profile on all the top platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. all require your attention! Yet as you optimize all these profiles, make sure that all your information and assets are consistent all across the internet. In other words, use the same pic for all your profiles. But as I just said, every platform has different dimensions to adhere to, so you must a unique version for each site. If you have a graphic designer, they should be able to quickly tweak the original profile to accommodate these needs.

Finally, if you do not have a logo at all, go create one right now. It will be a major help in both online and traditional marketing. Keep in mind that bright colors and simplicity are best when it comes to customers recognizing your branding. Ask yourself these questions about your company’s message. What is its tone (Serious, fun-loving, etc.)? Which, if any, iconic elements of my industry and work translate into a logo successfully (for example, an auto repair shop could use tires, cars, tools, etc.)? Who is my target demographic?

Choose A Cover Image That Fits

Many of the rules for picking the right profile picture can apply to the creation of a cover image. Once again, each platform has different dimensions and as such, you will need to make individual image files for each of your platforms. A note to designers, do not just stretch or shrink these designs. Important elements will get lost or disproportioned in the process. Additionally, just like profile pictures, a cover image should be representative of your company the work you do, complete with bright colors and attractive imagery.

However, cover images have several additional rules that will help you take full advantage of this prime real estate. After all, this is the very first thing your audience will see when they visit your page. Consider it a banner, welcoming your users. You have to make sure it speaks volumes about your company in the most simplistic way possible.

A cover image and your profile picture should go hand-in-hand. If you are using your logo as your profile pic but still wish to incorporate it into the design of your cover image, make sure it’s subtly placed in the design.

It is important that a cover image has some form of information. You could have your tagline or slogan elegantly sprawled over a beautiful photo, or you could add a call to action with your phone number or web address. Regardless, you must choose how much info and copy you incorporate. Make a conscious effort to keep it simple and not busy.

Some companies will regularly update their cover image to showcase newly-released products such a new menu items, movies, services, and more. You can also change it up to incorporate holiday messages, support for charities, and more.

A word of warning when you are designing your cover images – test out your new design on several devices, especially smartphones. These images have a tendency to be clipped to format to a smaller screen. As a result, you should always have your most important information closer to the center.

How Can I Keep My Branding Consistent On Social Media?

By Dale Griffen

7Jun

Business, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Local Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

Branding is such a major facet of marketing and brand recognition. It’s about keeping a consistent and recognizable identity and ensuring the customer that they are getting what they have come to expect from such a great company. So how can social media help with such an important endeavor?

The following is five steps to keeping up with consistent branding throughout the world of social media, accompanied by some examples of brands that do it best.

1. Tone

Social media is all about communication between person and person, or brand and customer. As such, a company needs to ensure their message’s integrity is upheld, but also their voice.

Nike is a great example of keeping a consistent tone. Their message of empowerment and striving for success resonates with its copy, and customer relations. Powerful, short, and punchy vocabulary led to an identity we all recognize.

2. Imagery

When you think of a company, you might think about their logo, products’ packaging, or an iconic color. All this is relatable when creating a loud and recognizable voice on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the other platforms.

Chic-fil-A is very meticulous when it comes to their branding. They rarely waver from their signature red, their unmistakable logo, and their bovine mascot. While it may seem to some like they are being sticklers, this level of consistency helps them stand above their massive competition.

3. Product

What do companies expect when they think of their brand? Is it a specific product? Maybe it’s your signature service? Put your thinking cap on and explain what it is that people love about your company. Then, utilize it in marketing and make sure it’s a central element to your tweets, posts, snaps, etc.

What is Disney’s spotlight product? Movies, right? Nope. It’s the characters. They harness the power of their characters’ iconic designs with every social media post. The reason why it’s not just movies is that Mikey, Minnie, Buzz Lightyear, and all those other memorable faces go way beyond movies. They are in books, on posters, in our children’s toy boxes, and so much more. While you will have to work pretty hard to beat Disney’s popularity, you can most certainly take a note from their marketing book and push what people know about you!

4. Customer Service

Branding is all about reputation. Well, you can have a good rep without providing excellent customer service. Take pride in how you handle your customers’ issues and what you do for them, even if it doesn’t directly affect your bottom line.

Zappos’ claim to fame is their crazy fast shipping times. Often, they will upgrade a customer’s order to next day delivery without issue. Because this is something they’ve become known for, they often talk about this on their social media channels. It’s not bragging if you’re doing business right!

5. Be Human

This is where social media changes things in the marketing world. Yes, we’re promoting products as marketers always have, but a big part of branding now is humanizing your brand. Talk about things that a person would talk about- holidays, weekends, fun times in general. Tap into trending topics and continuously pop up on your users feed with more than just promotions.

For this example, we’re going to spotlight a local hot spot – Datz in Tampa, FL. Datz is a young and hip restaurant where you can find the latest dessert craze while sipping on some local craft beer, all while getting the most unique flavors you can find. On Twitter and Facebook, Datz continues to shock and wow with new concoctions the locals can enjoy. But it goes beyond that. They talk about holidays, trending topics (at the moment, their logo has been changed to match Wonder Woman’s tiara in honor of the hit film) and shares things that you would expect a friend to share.

How do you create a dynamite social media marketing branding strategy? It’s simple- be yourself! Present your brand in a real, organic, and smart fashion that upholds everything your customers expect from your brand.

Looking for some help with your social media? Contact us! We’d love to help.

Creating a Facebook Live Stream With OBS

By Christopher Tompkins

6Jun

Local Marketing, Marketing, Social Media

Last week, I showed how to create overlays for your Facebook Live streams by creating transparent images in graphics software, then adding them to your video via Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) – free live streaming software.

This week, I’m going to show how to stream live to Facebook via OBS. So those cool overlays you’ve made show up in your videos.

How To Stream To Facebook From OBS

Using Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) to stream to Facebook Live might be a little different to how you’re used to doing your live videos.

Usually, when you want to do a Facebook Live, you simply go to your Facebook page and click “Start a Live Video” under your status update bar.

This starts up a direct feed from your webcam. No use when you want to add overlays to your video.

To get overlays on our Facebook live and do real-time editing, we must first send our webcam signal to OBS, which edits our video stream, then send that stream on to Facebook Live:

To set up your OBS, first, take a look at last week’s post where I show how to setup your overlays with OBS. This will connect your webcam to OBS like so:

The next step is to connect your OBS to Facebook Live. To do this, you need to first create a stream on Facebook:

Creating a Facebook Live Stream

1. Go to your Facebook page and click on “Publishing Tools” in the top menu bar.
2. Next, in the left-hand menu click on “Video Library”. This will bring up every video published on your Facebook page.
3. Now click on “+Live” to start a new Live stream.
4. A box should appear with some Live stream details:

Simply click “Next” for now.

5. If you’ve done a Live video before, the next screen should look familiar. This is where you type in the status update for your video and a title before clicking “Go Live”.

You’ll notice you can’t click Go Live yet and it’s showing your video as OFFLINE. That’s because we haven’t connected OBS to our Live yet.

Connecting OBS To Our Facebook Live Stream

To tell OBS where to send its video, we first need to get our Facebook Live Stream Key.

The Stream Key is a unique key that is created for every single Live to identify it. Once the key has been used, it can no longer be used again. So every time you start a new Live, a new Stream Key is created.

Copy the Stream Key.

If you now head over to OBS and click on “Settings.” You can then go to the Stream tab.

From here, all you need to do is select “Facebook Live” from the Service menu, then paste our stream key into the stream key box.

Click on “OK” in the bottom right-hand corner. Then “Start Streaming”.Now if you go back to your Facebook, you’ll notice that video has appeared.Here’s our wonderful Marketing Assistant Dan again to demonstrate:

You may notice that there is a bit of a lag between what appears on your Facebook stream and what you’ve just done. Sometimes it can be up to 20 seconds.This is because your video isn’t going directly to Facebook, but it’s going through OBS first. So you need to be mindful that you’ll want to end your Live a few minutes after you finish to allow your stream to catch up.Now to go Live, it’s simple. Just click “Go Live” on Facebook.Remember, the next time you go live, your Stream Key will change, so you will have to copy over your new stream key to OBS every time you create a new stream!

Hopefully, by now you’ve got a professional looking Facebook Live going out to the world. Next week, I’ll explain how to use multiple overlays together to transition between scenes in your Live to add an extra layer of cool.

Are You Concerned About Social Media?

By Christopher Tompkins

6Jun

Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Local Marketing, Marketing, Our Work

Does your business and social media marketing seem like a mismatch? Do you feel like it’s too large or too small? Maybe you just don’t understand the ins and outs of this new way of reaching out. Well, don’t worry. You aren’t alone!

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Ed Kendrick, who is the owner of Kendrick Home Services. His team specializes in home repair ranging from air conditioning, plumbing, electric, and heating. His team is known in his local area for their professional and quick service. Unfortunately, Kendrick Home Services’s online presence is a single landing page, with little more than a phone number and a few photos.

As you can imagine, that’s a problem.

Ed and I spoke about Kendrick Home Services joining the rest of the world on social media, and he had some reservations. In fact, he had tried to create a Facebook Business Page once for his company and well, it crashed and burned. So our conversation about social media marketing was focused on his concerns, which was as a marketer, was a new way to look at our work!

Here are some highlights of our conversation:

Ed: “I don’t want to reach out to the whole world, I just want to promote my business within our service area.”

Me: “No problem! With Facebook advertising, we’re able to target a very particular geographic location. We can cover your exact service area or even just a portion of it.”

Ed: “Last time I tried Facebook ads, I kept getting calls from people who couldn’t afford us. It was a waste of time.”

Me: “Did you know with Facebook ads you can reach out to a specific income base? That way you can reach the exact demographic you’re reaching for!”

Ed: “Besides coupons, I don’t know what else to put on social media.”

Me: “Social media users like entertainment as well as promos. Mix in interesting news articles relevant to your industry. In your case, you could add DIY home projects or money saving tips for homeowners. Our clients do particularly well when they share Pro Tips and even inspirational quotes!”

Ed: “Last time I was on Facebook, a disgruntled customer gave us a really bad rating. I didn’t know what to do.”

Me: “Bad ratings happen from time to time. It’s part of the genuine experience of social media. The best way to handle it is to approach the customer in a positive and professional manner and address the issue head-on. They will be glad you did. You can also encourage your happy customers to leave good reviews so there is plenty of positivity on your page.”

Ed: “I just don’t know if I have time for social media. Last time I ended up forgetting to post for weeks at a time.”

Me: “It’s true. Social media marketing, when done right, takes time. From analyzing data to creating original creative content, it’s a major facet of your marketing. Luckily, there are professionals out there that can help you every step of the way!”

Ed’s concerns were completely valid but after years of experience working in the social media marketing industry, we know what goes into a good social media marketing campaign. We’re now helping Ed out with a new social media venture, and with specific Facebook advertising, he’s experiencing a spike in calls and new customers.

Is It Possible To Game The Facebook Algorithm?

By Christopher Tompkins

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24May

Facebook, Social Media

If you want to succeed on Facebook, you have to learn to play by its rules. That means learning about the Facebook algorithm and creating content that makes the social network work for you, rather than against you.

But can the algorithm be gamed, so that your posts show up on everyone’s feeds? Can you use your knowledge of the algorithm to help you create your content?

First, let’s go back to the start and find out just what the algorithm is.

What is The Facebook Algorithm?

You’ve probably heard a lot of us marketers talking about the Facebook algorithm. Most often while tearing our hair out and crying, “Facebook have changed their algorithm again! WHYYYYYY!? WHYYYYY!?”

But what is the Facebook algorithm anyway?It’s just a fancy way of saying, “How Facebook sorts content.”

When people go on about the algorithm changing, they’re just saying that Facebook is changing how it shows content to users.

Why Sort Content?

To understand why Facebook needs to sort its content, I want to take way back in time. To the far reaches of history.

The year 2004.That’s when Facebook first popped into existence. Although it wasn’t until a few years later than it took off.

Back then, it was only you and your friends. Not many of your friends either. So what Facebook showed you didn’t matter. It just showed you anything your friends posted.

Then Facebook got popular. Really popular. Not only were your friends on there, but your favorite bands, local businesses, and every celebrity alive.

Which meant that the average user was connected to dozens of friends and dozens more pages and groups. All of which were posting content.

At this point Facebook had two options:

It could continue to show you everything posted by your connections.

Or:

It could curate all those posts, choose the best ones and send those to you instead.

The second option was the only feasible one. Thus the Facebook algorithm was born.

How The Facebook Algorithm Sorts Content

In simple terms, the Facebook algorithm shows a user exactly what they want to see (or what Facebook believes they want to see.) How the algorithm figures this out is by studying a users behavior over time and collecting data.

In more complex terms, Facebook takes every post from every one of your connections (friends, pages, groups), gives each post a score, then sorts the posts from the highest to lowest. That list becomes your news feed – which is created every time you visit Facebook.

Facebook uses thousands of variables from each user to score posts and choose what to show. But at the same time, Facebook weighs posts based on its company strategy.

From experience we know that the following are important factors in what Facebook shows a user:

Friends over pages. Your friends and what they post are scored higher than what pages post. Facebook is primarily a social network, so your friends get a bump over everything else.
Type of content. Facebook believes certain types of content are more interesting to users than others. A text only update is at the bottom of the ladder, followed by an image, with video above and live video at the top.
Timeliness. Straight after a status update is posted its at its strongest, then over time that strength degrades. Facebook knows users won’t be interested in something a friend posted last week, so the older a post is, the less likely you are to see it. Other, newer posts will easily trump an old post.
Post Engagement. The more engagement a post gets, the more it will show up in other feeds. Especially if the engagement happens quickly. If you’ve got engaged or are posting about a big accomplishment, a lot more of your friends will engage with it meaning a lot more will be shown it. Similarly, for a business, the more engagement a post gets, the more it’ll show up on the feeds of your other followers.
Personal Engagement. If you engage a lot with a certain person or page, you’re more likely to see their posts. In my case, I click on a lot of posts from the BBC News, so Facebook seems to always show BBC News articles in my feed. Which is fine as I keep clicking on them!
What you’ve already seen. Have you ever been on Facebook, seen a post at the top of your feed, then gone back to find it a minute later only for it to suddenly have vanished? Since Facebook knows you’ve already seen the post it decides that you’d rather see other content instead of it now.
Trendiness. If the topic of a post is a topic that has been trending, Facebook will give it a bump. If you’re posting about the Superbowl while it’s happening, your post is more likely to be seen.
Your preferences. If you’ve decided to hide the posts of a friend or page, they’ll never get shown no matter how amazing they are. But Facebook also looks at your user behavior to figure out your unsaid preferences.

So the question is. Since we know all of the things that Facebook uses to weigh the content it shows. Is there a way to game the system?

Working With The Facebook Algorithm To Increase Engagement

The bad news first:

There is no way to game Facebook’s algorithm.

Every user on Facebook is different, so what they see is different too. It would be impossible to create content that ticked the boxes for every user connected to you. No page could reach every one of its followers with a single social media post.

The good news is:

There are a few techniques you can use to increase the engagement and visibility of your posts.

Focus on content that is more immediately engaging. Something that makes users stop their scroll. A photo or video will stop a user for a moment and make them more likely to interact with the rest of your post.
Posting at the correct time. Since a post degrades over time, make sure to post when more people are likely to see it. However bear in mind that that’s when everybody else will be putting up their content too, so you’ll be facing off against other people.
Use trends to your advantage. Can you create a post that is relevant to a current trend? Is a current news story connected to your business in some way? If so it’d make the great basis for a post.
Use Facebook Live. Facebook is getting behind its Live video, so gives it a major bump in other people’s feed. Even sending everybody a notification to say you’ve gone live.
Investigate your audience. Create content they want to see. Use your audience insights to find out what age your followers are and what type of people. You can then tailor your content toward them.
Vary your content. If you continuously post the same type of content to your page, you’ll bore your dedicated followers. But you’ll also miss out on followers that aren’t interested in that type of content. User A might love your photos but hate your videos. User B might love your videos and hate your photos. To please them both, you need to make content for them both.
Stay up-to-date with Facebook. Facebook isn’t shy about expressing its goals. It wants to make Facebook more immersive for everybody. With that in mind, a lot of its future focus is on 360 videos, alternate and virtual reality, and chatbots. With that in mind, it only stands to reason that those things will find favor in the algorithm. Staying up-to-date with Facebook is an important way to see what it thinks is relevant.

Remember above all, Facebook will show users what they want to see. If you make terrible content that nobody would want to look at, then nobody will see it. It’s just as simple as that.

So the golden rule is:

Create meaningful content that your connections want to engage with.

That’s the best way to work the system.

Coming Up With New Content Ideas

By Christopher Tompkins

Copy of Go! Blog Image Templates (900x350) (4)

17May

Content Creation, Copywriting, Local Marketing, Marketing, Social Media

Coming up with new content ideas for your website can start to get tough after a while. Once you’ve ticked off the obvious topics in your industry, you may find it a bit of a struggle to come up with new ideas.

It doesn’t seem to get any easier either. The more you write, the less there is to write about.

The upside is that this creative chasm can challenge you to come up with more engaging content that isn’t on every other website in your industry. The downside is that coming up with ideas takes a little more work.

Below are a few exercises and routines we follow to keep ourselves inspired. To lessen the work of idea creation.

1. Start With An Image

Whenever we make a piece of content, we also make an image afterward. Whether it’s a blog post or a social media update, once the copy is done, we move on to the picture.

But who says the copy has to come first?

Sitting down to create an image without any copy to restrict you is a great way to find some inspiration. Once the image is done, you can allow that to inspire your copy.

Ask yourself, “What type of article would this image be good for?”

2. Read

A good writer is also a good reader.

We write about marketing, so we also read a lot about marketing. News articles, emails, blogs, social media posts, and books. Reading the views of others in our industry keeps us in the conversation and aware of current trends.

But we also dip outside of marketing too. Marketing, like many other industries, is something that can be relevant to many other things.

Whenever we find out about a new idea or a new trend, we wonder, “Can this be applied to marketing?” This can often lead to inspiration for content.

Could the last book you read apply to your industry in some way? Does a trend in the news also point to something in your own industry?

If the answer is yes, you’ve got something to write about.

3. Take your time and forget about inspiration

Inspiration is the strangest thing. The more you try to grasp it, the further it seems to be.

One exercise we often do on team building days is we ask our Go! Agents to come up with an interesting fact about themselves.

Most of the time nobody can think of anything. They’re stumped. But all of our staff are creative and interesting people, so why is it so hard for them to come up with something?

The issue is, nobody likes to be put on the spot. When you force yourself to come up with an idea that’s exactly what you’re doing. The hardest way to come up with an idea is to think, “Idea, idea, idea!”

Our best ideas happen when we’re not trying to come up with them at all. When we’re driving home, taking a shower or just before we go to bed.

It’s good practice to carry a notepad with you so you can collect ideas. Even when your deadline is weeks away.

As counter-productive as it seems, not thinking about coming up with an idea makes ideas appear on their own.

4. Revisit Old Content

After my last tip, I’ve either got you nodding your head, or I’ve completely lost you. You might be frantically screaming at your monitor, “I NEED AN IDEA RIGHT NOW!”

Maybe you have a deadline in 2 hours and you haven’t even started your piece yet. Worst of all you can’t seem to find any idea at all.When this happens to us, we always find it’s good to revisit our old content. Often this helps to remind us of old ideas.

But at the same time, creating content that is a direct response or follow-up to old content can be a winner.

One thing we like to do is find our most popular older content and write another post that expands on it. If lots of people loved your post about skincare tips, chances are they’re hungry for more!

The best thing about this is you’re giving your audience more of what they want. So your content is defined by others instead of yourself.

Facebook Live Anxiety And How To Deal With It

By Christopher Tompkins

11May

Facebook, Social Media

For over a month now, we’ve been going on Facebook Live each Tuesday to talk about social media. Everybody at the agency has had a chance to show off some of their expertise, but I’d be lying if I said that we’re all in love with doing Facebook Live.

It’s strange, but when you take a camera and point it at somebody, even if they’re the most confident, outgoing person in the world, they may start to clam up a little. A camera adds pressure, it’s almost like a challenge shouting, “PERFORM!”

It’s no surprise that Facebook Live makes some people nervous then. It’s like public speaking in many ways, some may even say it’s worse. When you do a presentation in public, chances are it won’t be recorded. If you make a mistake, nobody will remember it after a moment. But with Facebook Live that mistake could exist forever. Right?

If you’ve done your own Facebook Live, you’ll probably know what I mean. It can definitely make you a little anxious. You might even feel so bad that you decide that Facebook Live isn’t worth it.

However, I have a few tips which I find calm the nerves before we do a Facebook Live. So that everything goes smoothly and I don’t have to worry.

1. Preparing For Facebook Live Is Key

Some people are great at improvising. They can talk for hours on a single topic barely stopping for breath.

But Facebook Live isn’t the place to improvise. Without a plan, you’re just adding to the pressure.

Before we do a Facebook Live, we write an outline for the recording, including certain talking points to hit, tips to give and discussions to have. We choose a theme and structure for the show.

That way everybody that’s appearing will know what we’re talking about, so they can do a little research or prepare what they’d like to say.

Nobody is put on the spot, so we can all feel confident once we click, “GO LIVE!”

2. Use your knowledge

If you know nothing about a topic, it’s common sense that you shouldn’t talk about it. Stick to discussing things you know a lot about.

It’s much easier to give an opinion about something you’re knowledgeable about, rather than trying to make something up. The result of which could make you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about. (Because you actually don’t!)When we do a Facebook Live, we try to have participants that know lots about the topic up for discussion. Our Social Media Manager, Alyssa knows lots about Instagram, so she’d be a perfect pick when we decide to talk about it.

If you talk about what you know, you can be confident that any questions or discussion will be easy for you to handle. So you can focus more on how you say something rather than what you’re saying.

3. Relax

Everybody gets nervous when it comes to public speaking. It’s easy beforehand to panic about all of the things that could go wrong.

But the truth is, people are a lot more forgiving when it comes to mistakes on Facebook Live than they would be elsewhere. Nobody expects you to be a professional news anchor, they know that Facebook Live isn’t your day job. So they won’t be very critical.

If something goes wrong, it won’t be the end of the world.

4. The most important rule

Have fun! The more you enjoy doing your Facebook Live, the more entertaining you’ll be, and the more people will want to watch you. Having fun will help you relax and before you know it your Facebook Live will be over and you’ll be ready to do another one!

If you want to see our previous Lives, you can visit our Facebook page and click on the videos tab.

4 Ways Simplicity Is Best For Social Media

By Christopher Tompkins

9May

Social Media

When people log on to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or another platform, they are immediately bombarded with enough content to make their head spin. With millions of tweets to read, comments to like, and live videos to stream, just viewing social media could be a full-time job! This, in a nutshell, is why simplicity is key.

People do not have time to try and decipher your message. They like clear-cut, concise ideas that are presented in the most convenient fashion possible. How can your brand adapt this simple philosophy?

Check out these 5 methods of keeping things simple with your online marketing.

1. Short, punchy sentences.

When you are writing social media content, take a step back and try to determine which words are absolutely necessary. Take out anything extra and while you’re at it, replace weak words with stronger ones. This will help your message get across in a reader-friendly fashion.

2. “Iconic” imagery.

A rule of thumb in the world of graphic design is “if your design can’t be recognized when it’s on a billboard and you’re speeding by a 70mph, then it’s not an effective design.” Simplicity is the answer for designers and as such, your visuals should be instantly recognizable as online viewers “speed scroll” through their news feeds.

3. Call to actions.

Don’t make your readers have to go very far to visit your website. Provide a link and most importantly, make sure it takes them to exactly where you want them to go, whether a homepage, landing page, contact form, etc.

4. Numbers and bullets.

Imagine this article without these ideas being broken down into numbered points. It would be just a blocky mess. Breaking down information, specifically blogs and social media articles help your reader to take easy, digestible bites and understand the overarching takeaways.

So, let’s not waste any more time. It’s simple. Get to work on social media marketing!

Need help with social media? Contact us today!

Tag : social media

Choosing An Appropriate Profile Image

Choose A Cover Image That Fits

1. Tone

2. Imagery

3. Product

4. Customer Service

5. Be Human

How To Stream To Facebook From OBS

Creating a Facebook Live Stream

Connecting OBS To Our Facebook Live Stream

What is The Facebook Algorithm?

Why Sort Content?

How The Facebook Algorithm Sorts Content

Working With The Facebook Algorithm To Increase Engagement

1. Start With An Image

2. Read

3. Take your time and forget about inspiration

4. Revisit Old Content

1. Preparing For Facebook Live Is Key

2. Use your knowledge

3. Relax

4. The most important rule