Category Archives for "Social Media"

Whether you are holding an every week special or a brand new event at your location of business-Facebook Events are your friend. And oh yeah, did I mention that to create one them is completely FREE.

Similar to a page post, some of you may have ‘boosted’ an event before from your business page. This option allows you to put money behind the event/post to have Facebook target the area/demographics you choose for an allotted amount of time. This is of course an effective way to get your business or event in the news feeds of your target customers.

But there doesn’t need to be monetary contribution behind this advertising.
Creating an event is 100% free, and it is tied to a location based off of your selected address when setting up the event itself. Therefore when someone in your area goes to view events, you will be included in their results page.

I can speak from experience that I myself, have gone to the Facebook Events tab in search of more than simply to make sure I didn’t miss a friend’s birthday. I have discovered several new restaurants/bars and even a concert in my local area that I had never heard of, all from these free Facebook Events.

Once someone clicks to respond to the event: whether it be that they are ‘going’ or ‘interested’ that response can organically show up in their friends’ feeds along with your event preview and link. If you are new to the concept, or want a refresher, below outlines the 3 steps to creating your free advertisement.

To Create an Event:

1. Go to your Business Facebook Page, and select ‘Events’ in the left hand main menu.
2. Click to ‘Create Event’.
3. Add Photo/Video and Event Detail in the Pop Up Screen
   TIP: If you have a Weekly Special-simply select ‘Weekly’ for the Frequency and Facebook will run it for you so you only need to create the event once! Pretty neat, huh?

To Edit Events simply return to the Events tab on your page and you can view and select your list of upcoming events.

I recommend taking advantage of this free advertising that Facebook has gifted us. Use this also as an opportunity to look into your business model and create some events or specials that you can gather some hype around. Simply because to you, your business’ event seems ‘run of the mill’ that does not mean it isn’t event worthy!

Lauren Miles
Client Success Manager at Ampliphi Social Media Strategies

Boosting allows you to choose a post that’s already on your business page and extend the reach by spending money to promote it.

In today’s world of social media, paying Facebook to show your posts to more people is incredibly helpful and most importantly, easy.

To do a great boosted post, we encourage two things to begin the process.

Define a goal for the post

Setting a goal will help you define success in the campaign. Whether it’s traffic to a web page, engagement on the post, or page likes, figuring it out ahead of time allows you to optimize the campaign and judge how successful it is.

Make sure that you have quality visuals

Whether it is an image or a video, it’s important that the quality is as good as it can be. Fuzzy pictures or shaky phone videos are simple to create but don’t always transfer well to engagement.

To get started with the actual post you’re going to upload your visual to your Facebook page. Then make sure you write some compelling copy and tag any person or organization that you want to have included in your post. Also, you should always include a call to action and a link, if necessary, to give people a way to engage.

Next, once the post is published, you can either click the “boost post” button or you can use the ads manager to boost your post.

If you’re using the boost post button, it’s very self-explanatory on how to complete this process. The best part about using the button is that you can select an audience of “people who like your page and their friends”. This is the easiest way to reach people who are already familiar with your page and might not have seen the post.

If you’re using the ads manager, use the hamburger menu and select ‘page posts’. Then select the ‘published posts’.

Check out your stats and see which posts are performing well, based on the highest reach and largest engagement.

Select the post you wish to boost and select ‘create ad’ from the actions dropdown.

Name the campaign and ad set, select your objective and save to draft. Once you’re here you can go ahead and proceed how you would build an ad inside ads manager. Choose a proper audience based on who you’d like to target, set an appropriate budget, and select an objective that meets your goal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another pro-tip of boosting a post is that with certain objectives you have the option to only pay for results. If there is a strong call-to-action, we recommend paying for engagements, not impressions. You can even manually enter a bid based on what those engagements are worth to you. Or you can just leave it on automatic bidding and Facebook will get the most post engagements at the best price.

Lastly, the creative inside the ad will already be done because it’s a post that’s been published to your business page, so when boosting there is no need to worry about that.

So, if you have a specific message or a post you’d like to build engagement on, don’t be afraid to boost away!

You’ve almost certainly heard the word “influencer” in today’s marketing opportunities and for very good reason.

Adweek estimates Influencer Marketing will be a $10 billion industry by 2020.

Instagram (IG – 1 billion monthly active users) will comprise a huge portion of this growth, and finding those to help promote your brand is easier on this platform than any other.

Here are 6 simple steps (including infographic) we’ve created to help you use Instagram in your company’s campaigns. 

1. Identify your target market

Make sure that you’re using the search function on IG. To do this, go to the platform and click the magnifying glass on the bottom. Click inside the search bar (important step many people miss) and you’ll have the option to select Top, People, Tags, and Places. To search by interest, click Tags and enter your search terms. To search by geographic location, click places and enter the name or physical address.

2. Find influencers

Search for people influential in your target market by both number of followers and engagement percentage. The higher the engagement as a percentage of their followers, the better! A good way to figure out their engagement percentage is to take a handful of recent posts and take the number of likes and comments and divide that by the number of followers. This gives you a good idea of how engaged their following is.

3. Participate in their communities

Don’t just reach out to people without knowing more about them. They may have tons of followers and engagement but that alone doesn’t mean they’re the perfect fit. Before reaching out to potential influencers with an offer to work together, engage in their communities. Comment on their posts and like what they share. Be meaningful and deliberate with your contributions. This may create a thoughtful conversation and the opportunity to get to know your brand.

4. Reach out to them with an offer

Contact the influencer through DM (Direct Message) on IG. Since you’ve been engaging in the community you should be at least someone they’re familiar with. Ask them to help promote your brand or product.

5. Negotiate compensation

Be prepared for any reply. Or none at all. Some influencers will request money, product, or both. In our opinion, make sure you’re definitely willing to give them product. If you want them to speak on behalf of your company, they should at least have the opportunity to use what you’re selling. And when it comes to money, figure out what you’re willing to offer ahead of time. If you have a budget in mind, it’s acceptable to work with someone for a certain amount of time and then revisit the partnership. Just make sure you have determined what success looks like and that both parties are in the loop.

6. Review metrics and update

After hiring an influencer to promote what you’re selling, use metrics to track the success. Use unique identifies or coupon codes to track and gauge which campaigns are working and which are not.

Have you tried using influencer marketing in your campaigns? What success (or horror) stories can you share?

With social media there are so many ways to spend 5 minutes (let’s be real, 30 minutes) endlessly scrolling. This time I was glad I chose Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories is a feature that lets users post photos and videos that vanish after 24 hours. A lot of people I follow use this feature the same way they use the main platform on Instagram, which is fine. But it isn’t exactly what the best use of it is.

Below is a fantastic example, in my opinion, of a proper Instagram Story. It’s about an absolutely amazing cause and a girl’s search for a decent snack.

Meet Stefanie Miller. She’s been one of my (Helen) besties for more than 15 years.

I generally don’t check out a ton of Stories, but this first image drew me in because I love  coconut chips…and she dissed them. She also introduced Healing Heels, an incredible organization you’ll learn about below.

Stefanie’s obviously in search of something particular.

Can you sense the sarcasm?

Up until this point, each visual was just an image. The picture below was actually a video unveiling Stef’s pair of shoes. She uses the Superzoom/Dramatic effect to give it the anticipation it deserves.

The next 3 images were also videos opening containers to find more healthy snacks. Make sure you read the copy on the images. It’s hilarious.

These are her shoes! Learn more about the shoes below. This specific piece of content was a video using the Boomerang effect.

If you can’t tell what this is, it’s a half-drank bottle of wine with the cork inside the bottle. We’ve all been there, am I right?!

The warm and fuzzy part starts now! ?

As you can tell, Stefanie tells the story through copy on the images.

Don’t forget #hashtags

She’s going through and giving visual examples of their products.

And tagging friends so they can see your story

Remember, you can also draw on your images to point things out as you can see below with the reddish arrow and circle pointing out the random pair of Sidne’s.

There is Stefanie spreading love!

Promote. Promote. Promote! See how she did this… it’s well into the story, so it doesn’t seem like a sales pitch. It just makes sense and flows perfectly.

Back to snacks!

A little off subject, but I wouldn’t be a marketer with mentioning kudos to Healing Heels on the personalized message on this shoebox. For every patient that is gifted a pair of Healing Heels because someone else bought a pair they personalize the shoebox with inspiration to help get them through treatments. ?

Still hungry! ??‍

The image below was actually a video using the timelapse effect. It showed them working to separate all the orders and shipping labels.

And finally, snacks were had. ?

There are many reasons why I think this is so well done. Stefanie just did such a wonderful job telling the story. The whole progression spanned a total of 5 hours and depicted so much. This story showed happiness, humor, inspiration, gratitude, empowerment, love, hope, and of course, (h)anger.

I also love the behind the scenes footage that was captured as part of the Healing Heels process. Their mission is powerful and Stefanie did a great job of explaining the story while making a heavy topic fun.

Create. create. create!

You have been invited to a networking event. You are excited and hopeful to learn new things and meet different, interesting people. It’s going to be awesome! Then you think of a crowd of unfamiliar faces, and the nervousness hits you. That’s followed by the expectation to be confident and sociable along with the incessant pressure to be witty and scintillating in front of people you don’t know. This was supposed to be awesome, you tell yourself, but you’re wondering if it’s more work than it’s worth.

If you are familiar with this feeling, fear not, because you are not alone. Here are 5 simple tips that may help you overcome your fear of approaching people.

1. Be prepared – Dress comfortably and do your homework. Looking good will certainly boost your self-confidence. We all feel better about ourselves when we are well-dressed and comfortable. People usually have a positive impression toward those who carry themselves with boldness and are relaxed in their own skin.

   Also, do your homework. Try to find others who are attending the event and make a list of who you’d like to talk to. Do your research on them and figure out what they’ve been up to. These types of findings will be great conversation starters and give you a reason to approach them.

2. Don’t overthink it – This can be really difficult, as overthinking is one of our natural reactions when facing a stressful situation. How exactly can we avoid thinking too much? Take deep breaths and approach the person you want to talk to immediately. It may seem hard, but it will prevent you from twisting the situation in your head. Waiting longer will only trigger you to overanalyze what could have been a simple “hi” followed by a nice introduction. If you are not sure what to, just throw away your script and be natural. You may even be vocal about being nervous, as people appreciate honesty. Remember: the more you think, the harder it becomes.
3. Be yourself – Yes, this is a cliché, but the only way to get through your anxiety is to embrace who you are. You are not auditioning for a movie role or applying for a job, you are simply trying to connect with someone. Stop memorizing lines in your head, because more often than not you will not be able to use them. You don’t have to sound super smart, you just have to show the person that you are interesting enough to converse with. As you get more comfortable during the conversation, this is when you carefully add more flair to your dialog.
4. Give genuine compliments – Once you’ve approached the person you’re going to talk to, be genuine in your conversation and the comments you’re going to give. The reason you want to connect with a particular person is because you are interested in developing a relationship with him or him. Be sincere in your compliments and comments. People like the feeling of being appreciated for the work they have done, especially when you praise them on something they exerted effort on.
5. Remember, you’ll be just fine – Don’t be too hard on yourself. Whatever happens, believe me, you will survive. Real world practice is the best experience, and as you attend more of these events, you will come out stronger and more confident in yourself.

Approaching people, be it a stranger or someone familiar to you, is not everyone’s strong suit. It really takes an enormous amount of courage to start a conversation with someone we don’t know, mainly because we are afraid of rejection and embarrassment. Nevertheless, choosing not to approach people will lessen your chance to grow your circle and learn new things. It is only difficult when you haven’t tried it yet.

Most importantly, remind yourself that you are not the only one. Others are surely as nervous as you are. Sometimes, you are too overwhelmed to realize that not everyone in the room knows each other. Face your fears and you will be surprised at how enjoyable it can be to connect with people.

 

Sources read:

https://lifehacker.com/overcome-social-anxiety-with-the-3-second-rule-1619636095
https://www.atlasandboots.com/travel-skills-talking-to-strangers/
http://invisible-advantage.com/how-to-approach-more-people-at-a-business-networking-event/