Tag: Social Media

#SocialIsntScary – Scared to Curate Content?

When it comes time to tackle social media, the vast majority of options can be pretty overwhelming. All the different platforms, including their strengths and weaknesses, means there needs to be a varied strategic approach. This also applies to curating content for all of these outlets. If the pressure of needing to sit down and curate your own social media content gives you the shakes, don’t worry. Here is a breakdown of how to gather content like the professionals do – without the spinal shivers.
First, it’s important to understand what curation means. Curating content means gathering content of the highest caliber that is targeted to your audience and then sharing it via social media. The ideal way to curate is to create or collect information, graphics, and other content, adapt it to your specific brand and demographics, and then use it to start a conversation. What are some techniques you can use to curate your own content?
Pay Attention
First, pay attention to what the industry experts in your niche are up to. Watch their content stream to get an idea for what inspires the most engagement. Be careful. No one likes a copycat. However, the work of others can be an excellent source of inspiration. Also, their trial and error will help you leap ahead when it’s time to post your own content.
Gather Resources
Do some research on statistics in your industry and then come up with a creative way to use them. Design an infographic. Create visuals with photographs or renderings. Make a video. Add your own spin to the numbers to get the information out there in a fun or more interesting way.
Don’t Ignore Commentary
Use your current audience to curate content. Did someone say something motivational? Share it! Did a comment make a valid point? Use that as a jumping off point to create a new post. Was there some engagement that got a particularly high response rate? How can you spin that into something you can use?
Collaborate
Work with others in your industry or field. Collaborate to create something amazing and then share the content. This not only benefits both parties in terms of saving time but also introduces each of them to the other’s current network and audience. Find influencers with an already established audience and work on something together.
Inspiration
Use the work of others to inspire you to curate content. Attend a fascinating workshop or local event? Use that to create content! Read a great ebook? Summarize the points that really hit home for you and share it with your readers. Enjoy that last Powerpoint Presentation? Take notes and use those as inspiration to share great snippets. There is inspiration everywhere. The key is to keep your eyes open and ask yourself how you can use it to create something interesting.
Tools
Worried about needing to be in constant creation mode? Don’t be. Set aside time to do the work and then schedule out the posts in a tool like Hootsuite. Hootsuite allows users to gather text, images, links in one place and then schedule them out for a future date. No need to be in curation mode every day.
These are just some of the ways you can approach curating content for your social media. The sky is the limit so there is nothing to really be scared of. Practice using some of these techniques this week and see if that doesn’t make curation a bit less painful.
If you are still frightened to take that first leap into content curation, contact us and let us show you the way! Don’t forget to #BeAwesome and remember that #SocialIsntScary.
 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.

#SocialIsntScary – Spooky Branding

While branding is essential, often it can also be overwhelming. Partially this is because many people don’t really understand what branding is. A brand is basically an idea, image or feeling that the general public gets when they think about you or your company. In fact, it’s the public who truly controls what your brand is by the way they perceive you and what you do. This makes it complicated for small businesses and people to wrap their heads around branding.
While we can’t control how others perceive us, we can certainly influence it. That is how we brand successfully. This means your images, your posts, your style, your voice are all fundamental aspects of your brand. In branding, it’s called touchpoints. Every aspect of your business that interacts with another person is a touchpoint. This could be your office space, your website, your invoices, your trade show booths. One way to tackle your touchpoints is to approach your business the way a potential customer, client, vendor or influencer would. What would you want their experience to be like? What would you want them to see? To hear? To read?
So, when developing your social media, thinking about your brand should be intentional. You have a brand whether you’ve invested time in developing it or not. The smart method would be to decide what you want your brand to say about you and then incorporate it into everything you do – including your social media strategy. Here are some ways to keep branding in mind while managing your social media.
Discriminators
First, what are your discriminators? A discriminator is basically what makes you stand out from your competition. What do you offer that you want to highlight or feature? What makes your company stand out? Why should people follow you? It’s ideal to have one to three specific discriminators to work with. Think about your level of expertise or your skill set. Consider the aspects of your business that you are super passionate about. What type of information draws you in while you are online? These will give you a good indication of what your strengths are.
You may have a lot of different interests. It’s important to narrow it down to just a few that tie into what you do. Focus is important in branding. An individual needs to be able to receive a clear idea of what you are about and not get lost in too much clutter.
Now find ways to incorporate these discriminators into your branding. Find a handful of popular keywords that closely relates to what you are doing and incorporate them into your content regularly. Do some research on hashtags for the same purpose. Sometimes being specific can be more successful than going with trends. Niche businesses have a market too and those specific keywords may not draw the most attention but are more likely to pull in just the right audience.
Consistency
Make sure that you develop some images that coincide with your brand’s look and feel. Then use them over and over again across various social platforms. Someone should be able to look at your website, your LinkedIn page, and your Twitter account and instantly recognize you and your company.
These graphics will help people find and connect with you. It will solidify the branding images in their minds that they retrieve whenever they think about you. Make your photos, colors, fonts and descriptions match across all sites. While it can be tempting to change things up and be creative occasionally, this can be confusing for your target audience. After all, they are the ones who determine what your brand is. Make certain what they are seeing is what you want them to be experiencing when they interact with you.
Post on a regular basis. The online world is fast paced. If you don’t regularly attempt to keep their attention, they will move on to the next big thing. If it looks like you have abandoned one of your channels, even for a short period of time, your viewers will stop checking in. It’s important to have downtime, and vacations, and people do get sick – use scheduling tools to make certain there are no gaps in your posting.
Interaction
Social media is all about engagement. Therefore, it’s important to at least keep your brand in mind when interacting with others online.  Follow up on your comments, likes and mentions in a manner that is consistent with your personal style and voice. Join online groups that fit well with your brand and what you do. Surround yourself with influencers and experts in your field. Each time you respond to something that is a touchpoint for that person.

#SocialIsntScary and neither is branding. It just involves making deliberate choices that mesh well with your brand and keeping it in mind as you go. This will help you #BeAwesome and stand out!
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.

#BuildYourTribe – How to Engage Your Tribe

Jeff Goins once said “Something I’ve learned about building a tribe is that it’s not who you know, it’s who you help.” When you’re ready to engage your tribe, you need to keep in mind that you must connect on an emotional level with them. That connection has to be authentic and sincere.
Here are some fantastic ways to engage with your tribe:
  • Share a struggle. Highlight the pain point and be vulnerable in a way that makes you uncomfortable. People connect with humanity. Keep your audience in mind during this process and try not to get too personal in areas that will make your tribe members uncomfortable continuing to follow you.
  • Talk to them in one-on-one conversations. It’s okay to be the tribe leader and send your message down the pipeline, but if you don’t engage with them on a personal level, their loyalties may shift elsewhere.
  • Help your tribe by offering valuable insights. Appeal to your community, and teach what you know.
  • Ask them what they’re currently struggling with by asking the question (either through social media or through an anonymous survey): “What is your biggest struggle regarding _____?” You fill in the blank with a general topic that you’re familiar with. Leave the answer open. Don’t give a multiple choice. You may be surprised what your tribe struggles with. When you get the results, start looking for ways to help them overcome those obstacles.
  • Be yourself. Do the things you love to do. Share the joys of your life with your tribe.
  • Supportive and positive is the key. If you are constantly negative or passive aggressive in your conversations, your tribe will pull away from you. Every time you find yourself ready to say something negative, try to spin it into something positive. Remember, the only failure in life is the person who doesn’t get back up when they fall. They give in when they should persevere.
  •  Encourage them to share their stories, their successes, their stumbles, and their joys with your community.
  • Don’t let your tribe get stagnant. Focus on the less vocal members as well and encourage new blood. You don’t want an unofficial hierarchy to form. That can lead to isolation and frustration within your tribe. 

Take the time to cultivate your tribe and you’ll find them ready to move on anything you share. Their willingness to go the distance for you depends on your willingness to provide content they enjoy. They need that emotional connection in order for this to work. So make sure you do your part.
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.

#BuildYourTribe – Who Are Your Influencers?


Identifying the influencers that impact your tribe is not a complicated task. It requires interaction, paying attention, focusing on what makes them tick, and what piques their interest. These influencers will automatically be gathering the types of clients and customers you want. The largest benefit to this is that they will have their own large tribe of people that might also be interested in what you have to offer. Building a relationship with both your influencers and the individuals that influence your target audience will open up opportunities for growth that you would find both difficult and time consuming to do on your own.
Here are three steps to help you find and engage with your influencers.
  • You need to understand your community.
    This includes your customer base, clients, power partners, followers and brand advocates. Research your target audience. Educate yourself on their demographic, psychographic, and social media preferences. Be prepared to engage based on their wants and needs in the market they’re interested in (make sure you are completely mobile-friendly, for instance). Get to know your customers. This is part of building your tribe. Once you find them, pay attention to what they are following. Who influences them? Where are they finding support and inspiration? What information are they sharing with their own audiences?
  • Now that you know your tribe and you’ve targeted your audience, you need to where to promote your business, product or service. Your observations should show you where your tribe congregates, so make sure you’re there. Which hashtags are the most popular, what social media shares do they engage in with your posts, etc. are very important. Start building both an online presence and awareness for your signature programs. Before you go courting your influencers, it is vital that you have a handle on your brand and what you bring to the table.
  •  Find your influencers and the people that influence your audience. Follow them. Pay attention to what content they are posting and actively engage with it and make your existence known. This can be a slippery slope since you don’t want to come off as spammy or appear to be poaching from their client base. This works best when you locate an influencer that has a similar audience to you but offers a non-competing product or service. This would be an excellent potential power partner for you and allow you both to refer to one another. Share their content, engage with them, and make your brand stand out. Ask to do a guest post or interview them for your blog/podcast/YouTube channel. This is a nice reciprocal move as you will both gain more online presence and expand your reach.

 

Keep in mind that any influencer you cold contact will need to benefit from having a business relationship with you. Any influencer is an essential member of your tribe. If you abuse the connection, their influence could swing in the other direction, so keep that in mind.
Follow these three steps and you’ll find your influencers are just waiting for you to connect with them. Be patient, listen, and most of all learn what makes your tribe tick so you can utilize that information to #BeAwesome at what you do and continue to grow your own list and funnel.

 

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.

 

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