by Karen Petrauskas | Apr 10, 2020
Are you struggling to find momentum with your social media marketing during the coronavirus lockdown? You are not alone and there are many businesses who are facing difficulties when it comes to knowing what to post, how to post and when to post on their social channels.
However, there are some rules you can follow if you find yourself in this position, here’s our tips to help in your social media content:
Stay true to brand
No matter what happens, it’s important to stay true to your brand. Going off topic or trying to fill posting slots with irrelevant content will not only change the direction of your business but give people who have been loyal followers a chance to become bored or dismayed with your content. You can use this time to show behind the scenes posts or give inspiration to your audience, bearing in mind what your audience is used to and expects – just be honest and up front with everything.
You’ve built a brand that stands on its values – your beliefs and thought process haven’t changed, it’s just the way we do things that might change. So, use your core values to shine through, allow your values to be your strength, show your followers that you’re still providing the same value as ever and are there to help or aid in anyway they need you to.
If you’re struggling in any way with your business in these uncertain times, keep an account and tell your story of how it’s unfolding, what you’re doing and what your customers mean to your brand, through your social channels so your followers can stay up to date with everything.
Takeaway – stay on brand and tell your story along the journey
What to post on social media?
You may not be able to produce the same level of content or provide in-house photos and stories for your audience but that doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to say. If you’re a customer facing business, give them interactive content, ask them what they’re doing – show them what you’re doing, what would they like to hear from you, share behind the scenes stories from your own home. Get your community talking and engaging together.
There’s nothing stopping you getting a little creative in your content too – brighten things up or show a different side to your business. People like variety – what could you provide to make your audience smile, appreciate you, be motivated or simply something to think over?
If you’re been in a rut with social media in the past, here’s an opportunity to revitalise your content and provide something fresh and inspiring.
Take a look at other businesses similar to yours and see what people are engaging with – how can you adapt that for your business? We don’t suggest that you copy, but there’s no harm in finding ideas and inspiration from others.
And don’t forget to actually get social – it’s in the name and it’s an important part of keeping people engaged with everything you have to say. Try not to sell, sell, sell, but provide value and communication through your channels.
Takeaway – think ‘audience’ and give them content they will enjoy
How to post on social channels
Not being able to meet customers face to face is a struggle for many businesses at this time, but there are work arounds and people are more understanding than you may think, so just be honest. If you’re used to meeting a customer to discuss details, quotes, specifics, you have the options of emails, phone calls or video chats. Providing ‘video discovery calls’ instead of a normal phone call gives the customer the opportunity to still see you and break down the barriers that may appear if they were unable to see you. The video chat option is a positive step and can provide a better customer experience and introduction to your business.
If you’re used to holding meetings or functions, you have the option of online meetings and webinars. Zoom has become a popular use of online meetings as well as Google Hangouts and such apps. If you’re not ready to do a ‘live’ meeting, you have the option of recording a video and posting as a premier on either a Facebook Page or YouTube channel. This gives the option for people to watch and chat ‘live’ with the video.
Takeaway – use whatever function you feel comfortable with to reach your audience
When to post on social media
This shouldn’t change to the usual content schedule that you already have in place but maybe you might need to mix it up a little or adapt the times that you’re posting as people are online at different times of day at the moment.
Do you have a content plan / strategy document? If not, we’d love to help! But first things first, create a content plan that maps out what you want to say, and then when you want to say it. Do a little research into when you audience is most online an active on their social media channels. When are they interacting the most? That’s when you want to target your posts. And don’t forget that you can schedule your posts in advance so you’re not rushing trying to get all content done every day. There are great scheduling tools out there, and if you’re a small business and do not have the budget to pay for a paid for solution, there are still some great resources for you to use. Hootsuite allows you to have three profiles before you need to upgrade to a paid plan. This means that if you’re using Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, you can schedule in advance for all three platforms without the hassle of daily posting or paying for the pleasure.
Other options include Buffer / Tailwind / TweetDeck / SocialOomph – and much are down to personal preference and what you’re looking for in a scheduling tool. The best thing to do is have a go with each and see which you prefer!
Takeaway – listen to your audience and work with them on their time schedules
Find inspiration
While we’re staying at home and are minimalising the times we go outside, inspiration has to come from somewhere – and often the best inspiration comes right when we’re not expecting it. Sit out in the garden and enjoy the spring weather, you’re surrounded by colours, birds, flowers – what can you gain from that? Can you use that inspiration in your social content?
Reading a book or watching a TV program; does it give you an idea to write a blog post or newsletter?
In these times we adapt to what’s around us and find new inspiration from these surroundings. It’s about finding new ideas, and things that our audience too would like. It doesn’t hurt to give new ideas a try – we learn by trial and error – and if your audience latches on, ever better – you’ve found yourself some new content areas.
Understand your audience and find out what they want to hear, what they want to know and how you can better serve and help them. We’re all in this together, everyone is in the same boat and as time goes on, your customers will appreciate the honesty and integrity that you show through this lockdown period.
However you approach your social media marketing at this time of uncertainty and crisis, we encourage you to seek out your audience, listen to their pain points, what they want to hear and see – and provide value in all that you give them. If you’re not sure how to work a marketing strategy or would like to dig deeper into reaching your audience, talk to us, we’d love to help.
Why not download our FREE social media checklist to ensure you don’t forget the basics and cross every tick box as you go – it’s our gift to you.
by Karen Petrauskas | Apr 3, 2020
It’s no surprise that many businesses are facing hard times during the Coronavirus pandemic which the world is currently going through, and this is made worse by not being able to physically see people face to face and to promote a business in the normal way. However, we want you to know that there is a light to all of this when it comes to keeping your business alive, and ensuring that your brand is still in the forefront of people’s mind when they are looking for your services or products.
The key to this light is communication. Each business that is facing hardship at this time needs to dig deeper into their communication channels and to find a way to still be there for their audience and to provide as much value as they can.
Everyone is looking for solutions, everyone is searching for answers and needs to feel that they can find what they are looking for somewhere out there, probably online. And that’s where your business can thrive. That’s where you can be the best of what you are capable of and showcase a range of solutions to reach your audience. All you need to do is understand your audience, stand in their shoes and get to grips with what they are feeling, their pain points and what they are seeking – and provide solutions for them.
It’s not a chance to ‘get rich quick’ or to make other’s out of pocket, it is a chance to provide value and stability in a time of uncertainty.
How can you communicate efficiently and effectively in times of panic?
Utilise your social media channels
As more and more people are communicating through their social media channels, connecting with friends and family, searching for online solutions and generally spending more time online, here is your opportunity to reach them right where they are.
Where is your audience hanging out? Is it Facebook / Instagram / LinkedIn? People settle into a place that’s comfortable and calming for them. Personal social media is down to the individual to find a platform that works for them and therefore it may not be where you are used to being, but if you want to speak directly to your audience, it’s where you need to be.
We say this so many times, but the more value you give, the better a) you will feel, and b) the more your audience will trust, respect and like you. It’s about building relationships and getting to know your audience. People buy from trusted sources; from people they can see and understand. People engage with people they like to hear from, where they can relate and resonate with.
Emotion plays a big part in social media, being able to reach someone’s emotions will go a long way in gaining engagement and interaction on the content that you share. Thinking about how your audience will react to your content, can you make them laugh, smile, feel inspired or motivated? Social media is about getting social and communicating at a level your audience appreciates and reacts to – every audience is different but how can you best touch their emotions and what types of content can you create that will fit the box?
Create a Facebook or LinkedIn Group
Do you have a specific group of people that you could provide even more value to in a more personal or interactive way – that’s not necessarily given to your wider audience? This is where a private group can come in. Facebook and LinkedIn groups are the perfect safe place for people to ask more direct questions, to gain clarity and insight and to have a deeper relationship with a brand or business. This is where your personality and skills can shine through. Many people are part of social networking groups, so why not set up one for your business where you can provide the same level of substance as others?
Setting up a Facebook group is easy, and once you’re set up and ready to go, it’s time to invite some people to join! You can use your social channels to ask your audience to come and check out what’s new, you can personally invite friends (if it is relevant) to join and from there it’s about creating content that will speak directly into their lives, whether that be personal or business related, depending on what your business is about. Ensure that what you produce is relevant to your brand and what they signed up for, there’s no point in creating content for the sake of it, put thought and effort into everything, and show that you care about what they are going through and who they are.
Here at KJP Creative, we have a Facebook group aimed at helping women business owners build their brand online. It’s a group for encouragement, inspiration and motivation along with advice and tips on how to use online marketing to grow a business. For us, it’s on topic and in line with our brand and core values, it’s helping a specific group of people and providing value where they need it the most. Try to think about how you too can offer something that’s of worth for your audience, what would they want to see or hear and how can you reach them in a much deeper and direct way?
Email marketing
You’ve probably heard it said “the money is in the list!”, well, we’re not focusing on the money aspect in this post, but there is much to be said for keeping the communication going through email, especially with many people using email rather than face to face meetings during the pandemic.
Email marketing, when performed correctly, can be an extra arm to your business, giving you yet another stream to be able to provide content and value to your audience. Not everyone will read your emails, but it’s a good place to start if you want to provide more than just the standard social media posts. An email can give you opportunity to utilise a number of different avenues, including asking people what they want to hear from you, what would help them and providing a private place for special offers, tips and advice.
Email marketing is a way to keep your customers informed – what a great place to add a personal video or image about what’s going on or happening behind the scenes!
It’s also a place where you can push your online sales and guide people through your sales funnel. With face to face interaction not happening and shops and services on hold, this is your chance to showcase your services to the people that are already interested in your brand. A ready-made audience.
If you’ve not yet set up a mailing list, it’s not a hard thing to accomplish (we can help if you need it!). But jump over to Mailchimp or one of the other free email marketing platforms and set start an account today. Just as a Facebook group, you can promote your email list to your current audience, you can create posts to let people know how and where they can join and then once you have people signed up, ensure that you send out regular content to them. It doesn’t how regular you send your emails, as long as you stick to the schedule you set yourself. If you say you’re emailing weekly, do it! If weekly is too much, go for a monthly newsletter – and stick to it. Once people get used to seeing your content, they will look forward to receiving your emails and knowing what’s going on.
At the end of the day, your online marketing is the face of your company at this time. In a world where people are turning to online communication and solutions, your business needs to be where the people are. Use your social media and online marketing channels to reach your audience in the best and most effective way possible. Be there for them when they need you, even if they don’t know they need you and be a shining light in a confused and momentous time.
If you’d like a guiding hand in your social media or marketing strategy, feel free to give us a bell and let’s talk.
In the meantime, to ensure you’re not missing the basics with your social media marketing, why not check out our ‘Social Media Checklist – Don’t Forget the Basics’ – it’s FREE to download and our gift to you…
by Karen Petrauskas | Mar 25, 2020
Social media should always be part of your marketing strategy as a business owner however with the country on lock down, now, more than ever, is the time to get your message out there and to be giving value to everyone you meet ‘online’.
Without the ability to mix in social gatherings, it can become a lonely place and people are finding ways to break the boredom, frustration and changes ahead. Being online will be the first point of call for many who are trying to stay up to date with the world, stay in touch with friends and family and continue as normal as possible.
So where and how does your business fit in to the mix?
Many people are asking the questions, “Should I pull back from social media?” / “I haven’t got the money to put into marketing at the moment” / “There’s no need to promote my business at this time”. All valid questions or thoughts but at the end of the day, you have a business you believe in, the world will go on and come through the Coronavirus at the other end and you want to be in the forefront of people’s minds when that time happens. By disappearing and being unseen through these times, it will make it harder to have an impact when things start to get back to normal.
The best thing your business can do is to keep an active social media presence but perhaps change the tone of what you do. For example, how can you help your audience? How could you provide value to your audience? Could you provide tutorials or how-to’s? Can you inspire or motivate your audience or be a listening ear to the questions or thoughts they have?
There are many ways that you can still communicate with your audience online, it doesn’t have to be about selling your product or getting them to use your services, the above ideas will help to build a relationship with the people around you and to build trust and credibility. You just need to be you – YOU are your brand and the people (eventually) will buy from you when they like and trust what they see and hear.
Tell your story
Relationship building and story telling is so important throughout your marketing ventures, whether that be online or offline, people want to trust who they connect with and love what they see. Tell your story, be honest in what’s happening around you at this time. People are happy to listen and engage when it’s something real – in the long term they will not appreciate you being something you’re not and giving them false hopes of what they will get from you.
Be passionate and positive
Be passionate in everything you do, be inspirational and lift people’s spirits. These are hard time for lots of people and many are seeing their businesses fall around them. How can you be their ray of light? Even if you don’t feel like it’s going great for you, you can still take the positive mindset and believe that if you push through and do all that you are able to do, it will be ok and your business will come through the other end. Mindset has so much to do with outcomes – do you agree? The more positive you are through a situation, the better the result. And that can be applied to your business in these times of lock down, isolation and worrying days. Make the decision to be positive, to be brave, and to try new things as we go through a different way of life for a while. You may try something completely new and it works! You’d never know unless you try.
Bring your audience with you in the journey
Step out of the boat, put your best face on and be there for your audience. Explain to them where you’re at, bring them along with you in your story, make them part of the journey. Allow your audience to help guide the direction of where your business heads, your customers are your lifeline, they are the people that are going to keep your business afloat, so give them what they want and allow their reactions and decision to influence yours.
There is room for everyone online
Social media marketing is a minefield as you may well know by now, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t play the game right and fairly. The internet is a big place and there is room for everyone, you just need to know how and where you fit in. And with many businesses pulling back in their online presence there will be more opportunity for you to be heard, if it’s done correctly and sensitively. Know your audience, know when and where to post, understand them and what their pain points are, get to love them and be in their shoes when writing your copy or creating your images, be that customer and create your content as if it were for you. What would you want to hear? What solutions would help you? What inspiration would help you or guide you?
Make a list of questions that your audience could be asking and write content around these, dig deeper into the mindset of your customers and provide as much value as you can for them and let them think that you are writing directly to them.
Each of us will be going through different struggles in these unprecedented times, the country, the nation, the world is all going through it together, so you are not alone. It’s just going to be a case of what can you do now to keep your business alive and help it to come out the other side?
It’s all in the marketing strategy
Plan your marketing well. Don’t live in the hope that it might work, be strategic in your approach and use your time wisely in creating a plan that will help you achieve all that you need to, while speaking to all those you need to and by providing all the value and solutions that you are able. Be consistent, be persistent and love your audience.
If you’re looking for guidance on how to get your business through these times and showcase what you have to give, we’d love to chat with you. Feel free to get in touch and let’s talk.
Download our FREE social media 2020 awareness days calendar and give your audience something to talk about! …
by Karen Petrauskas | Mar 13, 2020
Online marketing is an extremely important aspect of raising brand awareness and seeing business growth and in this digital age a business should understand the value of using social media to create the best results. If you’re a business looking to increase its social media reach and engagement rates, you can look no further than your own in-house employees. The perfect people to share your enthusiasm and create a buzz around your content, with the inside information and a wider network reach.
People often get frustrated with the difficulty on creating enthusiasm on their social channels and engagement can be hard to achieve but with the help of the very people that also love your business, you can start to build the interaction you need and create a better reach of audience.
Ask your employees
The first step in the process is to get your employees or team members on board with your vision. Share with them your objectives in using social media and ask them to follow your social channels. If they follow your profiles, they are more likely to see your content and in turn, engage with it. If they like what they see, they are more likely to interact and share which means that their audience is then in the running for seeing your content also. In just that small step, you are increasing your audience’s reach.
Make it easy for them to follow, share with them your business @handles so they can easily find you. If you’re using Facebook, they can even choose to ‘see first’ so that your content is the first posts they see when viewing their news feed.
Understand the stats
When it comes to reach, personal profiles have 5x more reach than business accounts. And on average a person has approx. 1,090 connections, it makes sense to use employees to help spread the word of your brand.
Your business profiles are not going to get the same amount of traffic as a personal profile so you have genuine reason to ask your team members to help out – after all they want to see you business grow too, right?
Facebook’s algorithm is looking for meaningful engagement, this means proper comments (not one-word answers!), tags and shares. Therefore try to encourage people to give proper answers or comments and to want to share your content, Facebook will recognise these efforts and award you for it.
With 3.5 billion social media users across the globe, you can’t argue that it’s a great resource to use. And this usage is forever increasing. At the moment that figure represents 45% of the world’s population! Recent stats also suggest that on average people are spending around 3 hours a day on their chosen social channels and messaging. You could say that the people are becoming addicted and obsessed with social media, but that goes in the favour of the business looking to promote and get in touch with their audience.
Incorporate your employees
What better way to get your team to engage with the content than to create videos or images that tell their story or feature them. Social media is all about telling a story, sharing what a brand is about and what value it can offer its customers. Therefore a video that talks about behind the scenes, team member intros, what’s going on in the office etc, is always a great step in the right direction and gives your employees an opportunity to want to share your content. If they see themselves online, they’ll want their friends and family to hear about it and this has a ripple on effect; the more their friends will also start to engage and share the content. The more people interacting with your content, the more people it’s going to reach.
Which social platforms should you use?
We love this example from Buffer which shows the popularity of the social channels for businesses
You can see the top channels and compare that to what you already use in your business. But you also need to ask the question: where will you find your audience and which channels do they use, as this should be the starting block of where you focus your marketing efforts. Be where the people are, find the sweet spot of your audience and then ask your employees to help you raise the profile, create the buzz and help build that relationship of trust and longevity.
Find your internal influencers
For larger organisations it may be easier to accomplish this, however whatever size your business there will be people around you who are good social media and have an influential following on their profiles. When you identify these people, use them! Ask them to promote your products, ask them to do a video review of your brand/products/services, use their influence to help boost your engagement.
Social media is full of influencers, you only have to log in to your favourite platform and you’ll see them, but businesses can use the power of micro-influencers just well as the big guns. These people are more personal, approachable and realistic in their genuine love to help a brand. And by looking internally to your own team members or employees you may just have some connections within reach. Don’t be afraid to ask your employees if they have ideas or suggestions too that will bring your social media to life – the more heads to the table, the more ideas and impact you’re going to achieve.
Social media hacks
There are many things that you can do to increase your social media presence and often we don’t realise that there are a whole range of other ways out there that we may not have considered. Try everything that people offer you; we learn from all trials and experiments that we work on and incorporate in our marketing plans. Here’s a great article from Larry Kim over at Mobile Monkey that will help you with your organic social media hacks.
When it comes to raising the profile of your brand, don’t be afraid to speak to as many people as you need to, to engage and interact in conversations that could lead to influential power or to simply state what you need and hope that your team are on board to help you make that happen. Teamwork is always the best direction, together you can make this happen!
If you’re struggling with raising the profile of your brand or need advice on how to take your social media further, our team of content creators would love to help. Contact us today and let’s talk.
In the meantime, why not download our FREE social media checklist to ensure you’re heading in the right direction – don’t forget the basics!
by Karen Petrauskas | Feb 20, 2020
When it comes to marketing a brand, business owners are faced with a wide variety of social media platforms to choose from. But how do you know which ones to use or which ones go with your brand?
There are way too many platforms for a small business to be able to use them all and to be effective in their marketing, unless of course, they have a dedicated marketing team working full-time. But this is not usually the case when it comes to smaller businesses or start-up companies.
Always start small
Just like word of mouth marketing, everything has to start somewhere, from that first conversation or first form of communication, the word gets out slowly and reputations are grown. The same goes for your social media marketing. Start small and experiment with different platforms little by little. Don’t go all in the first time you dive in; it will be hard to keep up and to be consistent in your approach
Instead work with your audience and which platforms produce results, which platforms house your ideal audience and demographics. Where is your audience most likely to be found?
If you’re a B2B or a B2C business, you will have different audiences, and these people will want to see and hear different types of content. Which platform would give you the best traction and where (after you’ve tried a little) do you find the best results?
Measure everything
In order to know what is working and what’s not, measuring the results is a must. Constantly watch and monitor what is going on around you. This can be done with a simple spreadsheet or notepad when first starting out. What’s happening in your industry and what can you do to jump on the trends? When you jump onto something that works, you’ll have more measurable results. But take note of everything you do, especially when first starting out. It can be easy to jump from one platform to another without really gauging an idea of whether it is working for your business. It may be a platform that you enjoy personally, but it is a platform that your audience will be found on?
Practice makes perfect
Not everything will work for you the first time around, it doesn’t mean that you’re in the wrong place, but it does mean that you may need to tweak or adjust your approach or even the type of content. If you see results straight away, that’s great! But it doesn’t always happen that way and it’s not a reason to be discouraged. Practice does make perfect and the more you get to know your audience, the content they want to see and the information and type of posts they enjoy the most, the better your results will be.
Stick to what works
When you’ve tried the different platforms and you’ve measured your results, stick with the platform(s) that produce the best results. The worst thing you can do it to spread yourself too thin. By thinking that you need to be on every social platform out there and creating a hundred posts a week will not work! It will cause you disappointment and probably lead to burnout. Focus on what works and leave the other social channels behind. They’ll still be there when your business grows and has the capacity to produce more content but until then it’s better to do one thing well than to do ten things badly. You will lose customers and a good reputation if you do not stick to what your audience is looking for. Give them what they want, produce valuable content and resources and gain their respect and attention for the right reasons. You will grow your audience by building trust. People buy from people they know, like and trust but that must be earned. You will see the most effective results when you do one or two things well and put your efforts into those things.
How often should you post on social media?
This is a big question and one that we are asked a lot! But again, this comes down to the individual business and their owners. It can come down to time, resources, expertise and content.
The average recommended posting schedules can be determined as the below, but remember, you are only going to choose the platforms that perform well for your business, you will not have time for all of them, so don’t panic just yet!
- Facebook pages: 1-2 per day
- Twitter: 3-10 times per day
- Instagram: 1-3 times per day
- Instagram / Facebook Stories: 2-5 times per day
- Pinterest: 3-20 times per day
- LinkedIn Pages: 1-2 times per week
Unless you have a big marketing team behind you, you’ll never keep up with a schedule like this and do it well at the same time. Always focus on where your audience is, what they react to and interact with and the type of content that drives the most engagement.
Your audience knows best and you should try to be where they are to impact their thinking and decisions. Where are they on the buying cycle and which platform would they be benefiting from the most? Where will they be hanging out? What type of messages do you want to give? How can you help them in their pain points and create a solution for what they need? Use the platforms as a springboard to be able to speak to individuals direct.
What does each platform represent?
To name a few of the most popular ones:
Facebook – the largest of all social media platforms, Facebook is a place for people to connect and network with family and friends, and to engage with business groups and apps.
Twitter – this platform is mainly for news, entertainment, sports, politics and a more. It has a strong emphasis on real-time information and the things that are happening right now.
Instagram – this social platform is a photo and video sharing social media app. It allows you to share a wide range of content such as photos, videos, Stories, and live videos.
LinkedIn – this is a professional networking platform, more than just an online CV as many people think. It’s a place where industry professionals can connect and expertise can be sought and found, along with a place for people to establish themselves as a thought leader in the online world.
Pinterest – is a place where you can find inspiration and help on almost any topic and where brands can put ideas in front of buyers, helping them to make decisions about their purchases.
So, with all the platforms out there, where can you see your business fitting in? What audience do you want to reach or attract? What type of content do they want to see or hear from you and where would be the best place to put that content?
The main point to consider is to only focus on what works and to build your online presence around that. Be confident in what you create, be thoughtful in your approach and put a strategy behind every piece of content you create and schedule into your marketing plan. Your business will grow and produce good results when it finds its place in the online market. No ‘one-size fits all’ when it comes to social media marketing, although it is good to keep an eye on what’s going on around you! But your values and goals make your business unique. And you have a duty of care to your audience and your business to be true to who you are and to who you are trying to reach.
If you’re still struggling to work out which social platforms work for your business, maybe it’s time to consider a social media audit or a strategy plan in order to start on the right track. We’d love to talk to you if you’d like to learn more – together we can do this! Contact us today and let’s talk.
In the meantime, if you’re starting out in your social media marketing and often forget where you are or what you’re doing, why not download our FREE social media checklist – Don’t forget the basics! We’re here to help and that’s exactly what we love to do.
Time to get social… have fun and we will hopefully speak soon.
