Tag: storytelling in social media

#FreshContent – The Value of Storytelling

As a social media marketer, you know how important it is to have content that is high quality, frequent, and consistent. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? The truth is, it’s not easy at all. In fact, it’s pretty hard to keep producing quality content that is engaging, well written, and offers something useful to the reader. What’s the solution? In a word: storytelling.

In marketing terms, storytelling means that your copy makes a connection with the customer BEFORE it introduces the product. You can probably think of many TV commercials that use storytelling that way. Think of the ones that catch your attention because they hit your emotions. You may not even see what they are selling until the very last frame.

Focusing on the story rather than the product may sound counterintuitive, but the goal is to create a connection with the customer, not necessarily to drive them to run out and pick up the product. A good story will create trust and stay with a potential customer when it comes time for them to choose a product in your niche.

Once you begin to think in terms of telling a story rather than showcasing what you’re selling, you’ll find fertile ground for building new content. From stories that relate to why you started the business to educational experiences, your stories can provide your customers with new insights into your business and your products.

Before you start to build your stories, you need to make sure that you really know your customers and what type of information they will make a connection. For some, educational stories will work best while for others, stories that tie to the news of the day will make the most sense. Whatever type of story you believe will work best for your audience, your stories should follow some simple rules:

Be Truthful: If your message is contrived, it will show. Use your own experiences to craft your stories.

Write Well: It may seem obvious, but your stories should not only be expertly worded, but they should also hold together by having a beginning, a middle and an end.

Be Consistent With Your Brand: Like all your marketing materials, your stories should communicate the image you have designed for your brand. If it is not consistent, your customers won’t believe it.

Make it Personal(ity): To help your customers connect to the story, make it personal and fill it with a personality that is compatible with your brand image.

To help trigger your creative juices, take a look at some of the best storytelling campaigns: Apple, GoPro, Allstate, McDonald’s, and State Farm are all master storytellers. Once you are inspired, get to work on your story and be sure to make storytelling a crucial part of your social media campaign. Remember, it’s not always about the short-term sale: you are building for the long run.

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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.

#Develop Strategy – Why Strategy in Your Marketing is Important

When you are running a small business it can be difficult to maintain all the different facets of running a successful company. Owners need to manage the work, the clients, the numbers, the team, and the marketing. It can be both daunting and overwhelming. Many entrepreneurs and business owners simply overlook marketing due to a lack of time, energy or experience. However, business growth is dependent on your marketing strategy. 
Business Plan
First, you need to have a plan. The more detailed your plan the easier it will be to set measurable and achievable goals. Your plan should incorporate what you intend to do during the year – the amount of work, the level of profit, staffing, expenses, purpose and messaging. Leave no rock uncovered when you sit down and develop your plan. This will include your marketing strategy for the year. 
Branding & Storytelling
What a lot of business owners don’t understand about their brand is that it exists whether you develop it or not. How the public views you, and your company, makes up the elements of your branding. Owners that ignore this fact will find that the public has 100% control over how their work is perceived. Smart companies understand the power of creating a business message – a method of storytelling for work – that projects the image that business owners want their staff, clients, competition and the general public to associate with their work. Understanding your own brand and company story is the first step in developing a marketing strategy.
Target Audience
We no longer live in an age where we market our services to everyone. Traditional advertising is slowly becoming a marketing tool of the past. Why? Because it is ineffective to sell to a wide group of people without narrowing down the demographics. Want an effective marketing strategy? You need to hone down exactly the type of people that make your ideal client. The time and effort involved in sales and marketing should be utilized only in areas where your target audience works, plays and relaxes. If you don’t have a picture of your ideal client, then you need one right away.
Types of Marketing
Now that you know your message and where your clients hang out, you need to determine the types of marketing that will be most effective for what you do. This will be different for every business. The variety of marketing options feels endless. This list alone will have your head swimming. 
In 2016, online marketing is the place to be. This means social media marketing and content marketing are huge right now. Building a mailing list (or funnel) is another area that many marketing experts say is essential for your business. Developing content and booking stages is a type of marketing as well, called influencer marketing, and can be quite effective for establishing expertise and presence. Relationship marketing is a great way to build a village of partners that are invested in you and what you do. 
This article showcases a study that proves the younger generation does utilize social media when it’s time to make purchasing decisions. Another reason that demonstrates how knowing your audience is vital. 
Marketing Plan
Having an editorial schedule with goals and focus for your content, messaging and social media is practically essential.  If you are not certain which direction to take, do some initial experimentation. For instance, you can concentrate on one type of content or platform each month, while maintaining your other marketing channels.  If you switch it up and continue focusing on different platforms over a 3-6 month period, you can see which platforms are doing the best for you and get a better understanding of each option. 

If you know one choice will work well for your business, focus your energies on developing that area first and then slowly begin incorporating other channels. Often it’s better to do one thing well than to do a variety of marketing tactics on a sub-par level.
Networking
Networking is another way to grow your circle of connections.  You can do this both on- and offline.  Recommendations back and forth are extremely beneficial.  You can also reach out to your network if you have questions about how to get the most out of your marketing, social media platforms, content and emails.  You might have a connection who is masterful in a certain aspect of marketing you are you’re interested in.  You and your connection might work in the same industry, but have different niches.  If you both have blogs, you can refer to each other in your content. This is a great way to develop both referral and power partners for your business, not just new clients!
The best advice is to have fun!  Think of your marketing strategy as an adventure.  You will learn so much about how you want your business to look, feel and present itself to the world. 

Having trouble creating your company’s story? Don’t have a clue how to put together an editorial calendar? Just don’t have time to deal with all the little tasks involved with staying on top of your marketing strategy? Give the team at The Social Media Advisor a call – we specialize in small business marketing strategy development!

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 


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.

#TeamBuilding – Finding the Right Social Media Team

A true sign that you have finally started making waves in your business is when you get to the point that you need to add people to your team. Being the CEO of every aspect of your business only works for so long. In order to grow professionally, you will need to bring people into the fold that can manage various areas of your work. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners find that they actually become more profitable once they begin to delegate certain time consuming aspects of their business to team members.

Why do you need a social media team?
Social media marketing is definitely an area that many companies, especially those without internal marketing staff, look to experts for assistance.  To be effective at social media, there are several factors that go into consideration:
  • –       Must understand the different social media platforms, the best times to post, the demographics, the purpose, and the individual tactics and lingo.
  • –       Need to remain consistent in social efforts since a lapse in content will cause a loss in followers.
  • –       Knowledge of advantageous social media practices and concepts such as like/know/trust, 80/20 rule, prospecting, analytics and platform advertising is extremely helpful.
  • –       Keeping on top of engagement such as thanking people who share content, responding to messages, and being reciprocal with favorites and likes is a necessary element of generating followers in social media.
  • –       Understanding the various social media tools to help automate certain elements of social and save time.
  • –       Responding quickly and appropriately to any bad review or other potential social media crisis. 

That is a lot to keep on top of for just one task. Unfortunately, to be truly efficient at social media, all of these elements need to be handled on a regular basis.
So, who do you want on your team?
You have some options. You can hire a full-time person in house just to handle social media. Most companies aren’t quite big enough yet to justify a full time staff member. This means outsourcing the work to a social media company who will give you a plan based on your business needs and who will be able to maintain most of this for you.
What you may find when you are seeking your own social media manageris that they tend to specialize in different areas. Some of them are experts in a specific field or niche. Others are great on content creation but may not tackle engagement. There are companies out there that offer all of the above. Make sure you know what type of assistance you are looking for before you begin interviewing potential social professionals.
The tasks can also be divided into different fields or specialties. It’s possible to hire a content creator to write, design and publish various content but then also bring a SEO expert on board to get the most bang out of that content. If you are attempting to build a tribe or community, hiring someone to manage your engagement should be the goal. There are other possible roles such as a public relations individual or expert at reputation marketing to manage your online presence, a data driven team member focused on analyzingresults, or a IT person well versed in web development and coding for blogging and website assistance.
Don’t hire a team member or company that can only provide pieces of what you are seeking. There are enough people out there in the field that finding one to meet your needs should not be too difficult.
Remember that your social media marketing is a part of your brand. The story you tell in social media is vital to how the public views you and what you do. If you think of social as anything other than elaborate storytelling in order to build relationships, then you don’t really understand what social media can accomplish.
Want to learn more about social media and storytelling? Contact The Social Media Advisor team. We’d love to chat with you about how you can #BeAwesome online!
~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 

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, Instagramand the tools to manage them.

Are you looking for Social Media Speakers in 2016 for your Groups or Teams?



Are you interested in hosting a Social Media Speaker for 2016? We would love to meet your group and discuss top online marketing trends of 2016!

Can you relate to any of the following questions?

?         We want to know … what are the latest trends for social media marketing for 2016?
?         How do we incorporate a relationship and retention building strategy with our clients in social media?
?         What are tools we can incorporate today to help build the “Like, Know, Trust” with our customers TODAY?
 This presentation is an ideal fit for your business and the people in our group!
Telling an effective story in your brand will make or break your online presence. 
  
In our research, 9 out of 10 Corporate Profiles in social media are not enriched with anything relevant to their brand, their potential clients or their ideal target market. 
  
Anyone can build a Social Media Profile Page, but do they know how to build them correctly?

This talk will discuss the importance of a story in your marketing, the key components social platforms utilize to make your brand searchable and tools to establish your true “voice” which will guide your brand on the journey of building a solid foundation for a successful social media relationship with your audience. Launching these principles into your business will immediately improve your credibility with your customers by building a long standing relationship with your clients so your competition isn’t claiming them from you. 

  
Workshop Take-aways:  
  
?         Your Story Matters: Defining the social media algorithms and how they can help or hurt your brand  Content is KING! 
?         Discussing the proper ways to integrate the power of native video, branded images and keyword rich storytelling into your online brand  
?         Tools of the Trade: Top tools for creating and scheduling content, monitoring engagement, and processes to keep you on top of your marketing funnel. 
  
Let us know if this workshop would be of benefit to your business, networking group, mastermind, business development or sales teams.

#BeAwesome In Storytelling For Your Brand

Your Trainer: Hollie Clere at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clerecomm

  
Contact Information: 
303-847-7070 

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