Author: Hollie Clere

Prepping Your Social Media Game Plan for the 4th Quarter

Whether you like it or not, we’ve reached the fourth quarter of your small business year. In a couple of months, you’ll be able to tell whether you made your yearly dreams come true or if you fell short of your expectations for these past twelve months. If you haven’t already, it’s time to put together your social media game plan for the fourth quarter.

The End Zone

This is it. This is the last quarter of the year to make an impact with your small business. It’s time to check your numbers and your goals. Are you on track to reach those milestones by year end? If not, then it’s time to put together some marketing campaigns and promotions and try new things to get you over that finish line. If you are on track, is there anything you can do to stack the deck and go bigger than you even imagined? Now’s the time to plot out your end game strategy for the year.

Blitz

This is the perfect time of year to go big or go home. If you have the motivation, energy, and resources, it’s time to try new things and really put your business out there. Join a new networking group, create a new campaign, host a contest, finally start that email newsletter, buy some ads, or invest in support. Time is limited to make an impact this year and going ALL OUT in the fourth quarter could have truly wonderful results for your business. You can use social media to get the word out, get in front of new people, and connect with power players in your industry.

Holiday Season

Let’s be honest, the fourth quarter of the year is when most businesses make the bulk of their profits. This is not the time to sit on the sidelines or check out. We’ve found that most social media marketing strategies and promotions take at least 60 days to be effective. That means if you have a holiday deal for December, you need to have your ducks in a row at the beginning of October.

Yes, I know, you don’t want to think about the holidays yet. However, by the time you are ‘in the mood’, it’ll be too late to promote your deals/specials. Everything will have holiday brain and will already have plans or be making plans of how to spend their seasonal dollars.

You must get ahead and start planning your holiday marketing strategy now to give yourself plenty of time to promote your offers.

Overtime

Since you aren’t going to want to spend your Thanksgiving planning your New Year, New You plan – go ahead and put together your January social media strategy now. Yes, technically, January is a first quarter game, but your customers aren’t the only ones who will want or need to check out during the holiday season and focus on more important things.

***** Is it becoming more difficult to create content for your small business to use in social media? Is there just not enough time in the day to be as consistent and present as you’d like to be online? The Social Media Advisor team can create a custom editorial calendar for your posts, create messaging and images that are aligned with your brand and culture, and schedule posts so you can take social media marketing off your very busy plate. Hire us to do the work so you don’t have to. *****

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

 

Top 3 Social Media Must Haves

We’ve been managing social media accounts for small businesses for many years now. There are a lot of tools and strategies out there for any business looking to make social media marketing part of their overall marketing plan. We’ve seen recommendations and hot new resources come and go. In our opinion, there are three tools that every small business needs for their social media marketing efforts.

Editorial Calendar

Every successful social media account starts with a solid strategy. Just posting in the moment and when you think about it is reckless. It does not take into account your goals. (Do you have marketing and social media goals?) It puts you in a position to make up content on the fly. (What is it you are trying to accomplish?) It hinders your ability to be consistent and show up for your audience. (Can your followers rely on you?) All of these issues go away by creating an editorial calendar and coming up with a plan for social media.

Graphics App

Social media has proven that text-only posts simply don’t work. People do not engage with them so the algorithms bury those posts. This means you must have compelling visuals attached to your posts for them to be seen. Whether that is videos, photos, or graphics – you need more than a strong caption. What works well for our clients are investing in a graphics app, like Canva.com, to create social media posts.

Scheduling Software

You didn’t get into business to be attached to social media all day. Once you have a social media strategy, and have created great content, you’ll need to pick a social media marketing scheduling software to ensure you are consistent. That way you can batch content and walk away to get other things done. Just don’t forget to keep engaging with your audience! (But you can build time into your schedule for engagement.)

With all the options out there, and there are many, what we’ve found is that these three tools are a social media must have for our company and our clients.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

Top 3 Social Media Trends for 2022

Now that we are over half-way through the year, what social media trends have emerged? What is working for social media marketing today? Feeling like your stuck and need an inspiring new idea to reach people and increase engagement?

Here are the top 3 social media trends so far for 2022:

Social Listening

Every small business is trying to figure out how to get the most valuable thing in the world – the attention of their audience. Attention is the currency of online marketing. However, that means our audiences have exposure fatigue. All the brands are trying to get in front of them all the time, and it’s exhausting. This is going to separate the really good content creators from the rest of the pack. How do you become a stand out on social media? You build a relationship with your audience and you ask them what they need. Why do they follow you? How can you help them transform their lives? Social listening is becoming a key component in the best social media marketing strategies and your small business should be doing that as well.

Short Form Video

Video isn’t new. Video marketing has been the most effective form of online content for years long. However, long form videos are losing their shine. Unless you are building a YouTube channel, short form video is what people are consuming right now. Whether the videos are for TikTok, Instagram Reels, for Facebook – keep them short, entertaining, and engaging.

TikTok

Miss the early days of Facebook when organic reach and engagement was crazy effective? Yeah, everyone does. Unfortunately, the more popular a social media app becomes, the harder it is to achieve organic results. Right now, TikTok is newly popular and the organic reach is fantastic. So, everyone is jumping ship to try this new video platform. That means there is a short, narrow window before TikTok becomes the new Facebook. And businesses are not missing the boat. Does that mean you should join the TikTok bandwagon? That depends. Can you ramp up quickly? Are you ready to learn a new platform? Is your audience watching videos on the app? Are you willing to make a lot, seriously a ton, of short videos every week? If you answer isn’t HECK YES to each of these questions, I’d recommend not spending the time and energy getting to learn a new channel that you can’t be successful using. If it is a yes, stop reading this blog and starting using the app ASAP. The more you use it, the better you’ll get.

Social media trends are just that… trends. They are no substitute for the long effective tactics of creating a social media strategy, building an editorial calendar, telling stories and building relationships with your audience. If you are already doing these things and want to amp up your efforts right now, these trends may be just the thing.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

Top 3 Social Media Messaging Tips

There is no perfect formula for creating social media content worth sharing. However, there are some things you can do to up your social media marketing game and create content that your audiences wants to share with their people.

Storytelling

The number one tip for any brand on social media is to learn how to tell a good story. Human beings are drawn to stories. Story evokes an emotional response in people. If you want your content to spread, you’ll have to learn to be a storyteller. Your followers will share your content as soon as they start caring about it. Stories make us feel.

With each piece of possible content, ask yourself what the story is behind the content. How can you spin the same idea in a way that uses emotional drivers and makes viewers identify and care?

Keep It Relevant

The most common mistake small business owners make with their social media content is forgetting that they are creating it for their audience. The goal is to sell your product or service, but no one signs up for a social media account to read ads and promotional material. Social media marketing only works if you are creating content that is relevant and interesting for your followers. What do they need to know? Can you inspire them? Educate them? Entertain them? If you are only using it as a bulletin board for what you want people to know, you’ll quickly find out that no one is paying attention anymore.

Know Your People

If you are going to create content and tell stories that are relevant to your audience, you must first know who they are. If you aren’t creating messaging that is meant for a specific audience, you are just speaking to the sky and hoping it talks back. Relationship building and creating community means being intentional about getting to know your followers. If you want to create effective messaging, ask your people why they show up, what they need, and what keeps them coming back. Then create messaging and content inspired and motivated by these responses.

If you aren’t sure what to create on social media, these social media messaging tips are the inspiration you need to sit down and get started. If you want additional help, book a discovery session with me.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.


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