#PlanAhead – Using Stock Photos in Your Social Media Marketing

One of the challenges with building your social media presence is figuring out the visuals. You can create graphics with no photos, but I’m sure you’ve heard that photos grab more attention. However, since you haven’t done any professional photography, you aren’t sure what to use. What’s a small business owner to do? What are your choices?

Your Own Photography

Hands down, the best option for anyone building their social media marketing is to take and use your own photos. The bad news? Professional photography (while worth it) is expensive. The good news? You have a smart phone with a decent camera and most audiences are expecting some level of raw and real when it comes to social media. In fact, people tend to engage more with social media posts that represent the authentic you.

Back Away from Google Images (And No One Gets Hurt)

Seriously, I’m still having conversations with small businesses that don’t realize it’s not okay to just grab a photo off the Internet and use it on their website or in their social media marketing. Every image has some level of copyright protection. If you took the photo yourself (always the best bet) then you are given the same level of protection because that’s your intellectual property. It’s doesn’t matter how pretty it is, or how perfect for your business, you can’t use another person’s images without permission.

Stock Photography

What is stock photography? Stock photos are taken by photographers and uploaded to stock photography websites for use by others. Check the copyright license before using, but many photos are free to use. You’ll find two different types of stock photography websites – absolutely free with an open creative license (so you can use however you like) and paid stock photography websites that requires you to pay per image or sign up for a monthly subscription to access their photos. The free websites tend to be more limited on choices (because photographers don’t get paid as well, or at all, for submitting photos there). The paid photography websites typically have a bigger library of images available because photographers are incentivized to upload their photos.

Here are three popular free stock photography websites to help you get started:

Pixabay

Pexels

Unsplash

If you are just getting started with social media marketing, use the free tools available to you to get going. Something is always better than nothing and you can start building your audience using free stock photography this month!

However, understand that if you are trying to build authority, become an expert, or establish yourself as an influencer, stock photography won’t cut it for you. Especially for those looking to build a presence on Instagram, those users want to see YOU, not generic images that aren’t related to your brand. Depending on the impact you are trying to make, investing in either taking your own photos or hiring a photographer may be the direction you need to go.

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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.

#PlanAhead – How to Use Social Media to Showcase Your Next Event

Event marketing, when done strategically, can be an effective way to build your brand, gain awareness for you and your business, and fill that client list. However, there are many events that end up with zero attendance. It’s easy to get discouraged when it comes to event planning and marketing for growing your business. Here are some tips on using social media marketing to sell more tickets for your next event.

Highlight Your Speakers

By creating content around your speakers, you are demonstrating the value of attending your event. Not only should you announce your keynote and other speakers, but you should also be creating graphics with quotes or wisdom from each speaker, sharing their online content, and interviewing them to build up awareness and create the tension you need to sell those tickets!

Gather Media from Prior Events

If you’ve hosted this event before, pull out those photos and videos! This media is essential as it helps potential buyers to get a feel for what type of event it is and what they are in for if they purchase tickets. Make sure you are creating content for social media using these photos and videos. If you don’t have any, prioritize getting these at your next event.

Testimonials

If you don’t have written or video testimonials about how great your event is, start collecting them! These are great, not just for social media, but also for the event website or landing page. You can use them for Facebook advertising as well. Quite versatile and a great way to push people from indecision to action.

Create an Event Hashtag

One of the most beneficial uses for the hashtag is when it comes to promoting events. By creating an event hashtag, and encouraging others to use it, you are:

  1. Grouping all of your event content, even content posted by attendees, in a way that makes it easy to search and find.
  2. Encouraging attendees to share content about your event with their audiences.
  3. Creating brand recognition for your event.
  4. Making it easy to jump into the conversation and engage with your attendees online.

Let Folks See What’s Behind the Curtain

It’s easy to focus intently on all the planning, prep-work, and execution of the event and not even think about social media marketing. However, your audience builds excitement and interest when they get to see and engage with behind the scenes content.

Selling tickets to your next event is no small feat and, sometimes, can get lost in all the hustle and bustle of planning and executing the event. However, social media marketing is a great way to spread the message, remind your audience about your big event, and generate interest and excitement.

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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.

#PlanAhead – How Monthly Themes Will Keep Your Content Fresh & Current

Our advice for 2020? Don’t wing your social media marketing!

There aren’t enough words to adequately describe how beneficial it is to start the new year with a social media marketing plan. One of the best ways to do that is to sit down and figure out a content theme for each month of the year.

Monthly Themes

For example, if you are a carpet cleaning business, your themes could look like this:

  1. Clean Carpets in Winter
  2. Babies Need a Clean Carpet
  3. Clean Carpets & Family Health
  4. Should You Invest in a Carpet Protector?
  5. How Often Should You Clean Your Carpets?
  6. Carpet Cleaning Tips for Pet Owners
  7. What’s Lingering in Your Carpet?
  8. What to Look for When Investing in New Carpet
  9. Carpet Cleaning Myths
  10. Getting Your Home Ready for the Holidays
  11. Putting Together a Household Cleaning Schedule
  12. The Benefits of Regular Carpet Cleaning

This simple list gives you a whole year’s worth of content to talk about on your social media platforms. We’d also encourage you to create original content with these themes such as videos, blog posts, or podcasts. Original content can then be repurposed into social media content (such as quotes and tips) and email newsletters.

If coming up with twelve topics is intimidating or hard, spend some time researching your industry online. Seek out publications, blogs, or other websites to get inspired and see what others in your industry are talking about. Check out last week’s blog on how to not run out of things to say in social media for more tips.

Weekly Themes

If you are ambitious, we’d recommend breaking this down even further. You can take your monthly theme and break that down into weekly topics.

For example, if you are a Reiki practitioner, you could have a month of content that looks like this:

Monthly Theme: Reiki Energy for Busy People

Week 1: Reiki for Stress Relief

Week 2: Reiki for Better Sleep

Week 3: Reiki for Focus & Clarity

Week 4: Reiki for Energy Boosts

Setting aside a couple of days a year to focus on being strategic about your content will ensure that you always have something to post for your social media marketing efforts. It will also keep you from repeating yourself too frequently or having stale content.

If you’d like help creating themes, or becoming more consistent with your social media marketing in 2020, let’s chat!

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.

#PlanAhead – How to NOT Run Out of Things to Say in Social Media for Your Business

When I work with small business owners, one of their biggest pain points, for them, is coming up with something to say on their social media channels. They love the idea of building out their brand and becoming consistent on social media, but they just aren’t sure what to post.

Here are our best tips when it comes to never running out of something to say on your social media channels:

Poll Your Audience

One of our favorite ways to find out what your target audience wants is to ask them. Find an online group or community filled with folks that resemble your ideal clients and start asking them questions. Create polls. Build surveys. Start collecting this valuable data as soon as possible because what they tell is will convert into valuable social media marketing content.

Make a List of Frequently Asked Questions

Every business owner finds that there is a handful of questions they get asked on a regular basis. Jot down your Top 10 most asked questions. Addressing these questions by creating social media content will give you several months’ worth of posts and help you spread your message at the same time.

Make a Plan

This one will cause you more upfront but will save you tons of time throughout the year. If you spend a day (or two) just jotting down 12 monthly themes and then 4 bullet points per theme, then you’ll have something to talk about all year long. You’ll have a whole year of already knowing what you will talk about. No more waking up and trying to decide on the fly what to post.

If you are struggling with the twelve monthly themes, then do a search for similar content to get an idea of what other businesses around talking about in regards to your industry or profession.

You can always keep a close eye on what your competition is posting for inspiration purposes, but we find it works better if you have something to say that is unique to you and independent from the other noise online. Your audience and your target market are both valuable resources for finding out what type of content they really want. Plus, setting aside time to make a plan will keep you from just posting whatever random idea you come up with in the moment, allowing you to be more strategize with your online content and social media marketing.

If you are ready to take this off your plate entirely, give our team a call. We specialize in building social media content for your brand and helping you maintain consistently on your online platforms.

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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