Blog | Social Media Content with Stephsandy Consulting

Facing the Truth about Social Media and Advertising.

I remember when social media was (or should I say felt?) completely free. Even for businesses that wanted to join in on the action, it was the unpaid medium of the future!

Speaking of future, a lot has changed since 2004.. And, it’s funny because I still have clients that don’t want to spend money on social media marketing. I’m here to say that it is time. You can no longer afford to NOT spend money on social media. This is my advice:

PAY TO PLAY

Just because things have changed, doesn’t mean that social media is no longer the way to go… it just means that you must “pay to play.” And trust me, you want to be in this ballgame. Social media companies today have targetable mass audiences that you can easily reach if you make the investment to do so.

EXPERIMENT

If you’ve never done any type of social media advertising before, how do you know what works for your target audience? You may have an idea – and that’s great! Start there. Social media platforms have built-in analytics that show you the likes, comments, shares, favorites, mentions, retweets, etc. so that you can see how well your ad is performing in real time. Find out which ads work best and then put more money into either, those ads or ads with similar qualities. It’s all about tweaking until you find the best mix of placement, content and copy for your specific target audience.

STAY TRUE TO YOU

Just because you’re experimenting with content, doesn’t mean that you should completely diverge from what your company or brand is all about. Videos and memes of kittens are great, but what do they say about your company? Stick to relevant, valuable content that is close to your company’s heart. This forces you to get creative, and that’s a good thing! If you stay true to you, you’ll find that the interaction you receive is quality interaction from people that support your business. That’s the kind of engagement you’re looking for in a social media marketing campaign.

DO THE MATH

Know what your marketing goals are before you start your ad campaigns so that you can really calculate your return on investment. Social media has the potential to help you in so many areas of the sales funnel, but which ones are you focusing on? Being able to measure the impact of your ads will reassure you that you’re putting your money in the right place.

It’s really not that scary, I promise. Good luck!

–Stephanie Amy

Taking the “Blah” out of Blogging.

Today I am making a presentation about “How To Write A Blog Post,” which is kind of ironic, because I hardly write blog posts myself…

Yet, I am very capable of writing them, as are you! I think we all just “get a little busy” and take the easy route of posting articles or subject matters on our social media outlets that we want to share. I am 100% guilty of this. But just because a blog post should be longer than 140 characters, doesn’t mean it has to be boring!

So how do we find the time to sit down and write about what we know and what we think others would want to know in a way that, shall I say, “gets people going?”

Get Organized

Step #1: Organize your brain thoughts. When you are able to pick ONE good thing to write about; a blog post becomes so much less daunting.

Step #2: Know your audience. Who are you talking to? What are their interests? Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself if what you’re writing about is at all interesting… Be honest!

Step #3: Write an introduction that connects with the people you’re talking to. Grab their attention with a story, a joke, a relatable scenario, a SUPER surprising fact or statistic. Make the connection and then, keep going! You have more to say and they’ve followed you this far.

Step #4: Create an outline. What are the most important things that you want to say and how are you going to say them in a way that is not too overwhelming to the reader? Create sections, lists, bullet points – do something to break up the information in a way that is easy on the eye. We all really appreciate that, right?

Step #5: “Fill in the blanks” of your outline. Just start writing – you can always go back and edit. (And did I mention, you should? We’ll get to that.)

Step #6: PROOFREAD. Go back and actually read what you wrote. I know this seems like common sense, but you have no idea how many people do not go back and put their eyeballs on the things that they’ve written. This isn’t Gmail, there is no undo button – so before you publish a post with a TON of typos, do yourself a favor and re-read the whole thing. In fact, if you have a buddy or coworker that wouldn’t mind taking a glance at it; even better! This will save you time (and embarrassment?) in going back and correcting things that you or one of your readers found after the fact.

Step #7: Seven is my lucky number, so I had to include one more step! Add more information at the end of your blog post… Give the reader something else to look at or something to do. Again, they’ve stayed with this you this long, it’s only fair that you give them something even more beneficial to top it all off.

And there you have it, a formula for a blog post that is sure to impress the masses.

P.S. Don’t do as I do, do as I suggest. Or take someone else’s word for it, like Michael Stelzner. Here is his post about “Blogging Basics: How To Write Blog Posts People Love To Read.”

Happy Blogging!

Why You Should Post Content Daily On Your Social Media Accounts

So you have a business, but you don’t know how to find and post content that engages customers and encourages them to interact with your posts? You’re not alone. We can’t all work with the well-known, shall I say, famous companies of Apple, Coca Cola, Tesla, Amazon, Disney, Louis Vuitton… you get the idea. (Click here for an actual list of the 20 Most Valuable Brands In The World)

What if you sell fountains online? Or premium quality, custom shade sails? What do you have to say to your customers each and every day? Plenty.

Put yourself in your customers shoes.

First, your customers DO NOT want to hear about how great you are (you saying how great you are) all the time. In fact, if that sounds like something you’re doing you need to think about the 80/20 rule.If you’re unfamiliar, the 80-20 rule says, in effect, that every 8 out of 10 pieces of content that you push out should be “non-promotional” (it should come from someone else besides your brand, and/or about something else besides your brand), and the remaining 2 should be “promotional” (from your brand, and/or about your brand.)

Think about who you’re talking to and what they’re interested in. This could be so many things and I understand that you will need to break it down, but for example, if you are selling fountains, you have to think about who is buying them. Furthermore, why are they buying them? Are they gardeners who enjoy gardening content? Are they landscape architects who enjoy to view scenery and garden design. Are they building a new house for themselves and looking for a way to spice up the backyard? Or, could they be into feng-shui and looking for an indoor wall fountain for zen. By the way, I could go on and on. I won’t for the sake of you reading this, but I just want to reiterate the fact that you need to think hard about who your customers are in order to understand what type of content you should be looking for and posting on a day to day basis on your social media accounts.

The Snowball Effect

When someone likes your post on social media (or favorites, or RT’s, or comments, or shares, or what have you,) your post impressions increase. Think about it. If I like a post on Facebook about self warming fleece blankets for dogs, there is a large chance that my close friends will see that I liked that post on Facebook. It will say, Stephanie Sander Amy likes “such and such fleece post.” This also shows up in the tiny feed at the top right of your Facebook timeline screen. Why is this important? Well, because these are my close friends, people I trust and who trust me as well. They are more likely to take a look at the post because I liked it. Then, let’s say, they like it as well. All of the sudden, all of their friends can see that we liked the same post and so your reach has grown significantly due to each and every interaction. It may not seem like a lot, but if you think about how many friends each person has on Facebook – it’s a lot and can mean a large amount of impressions for you.

Search Engine Optimization

Keywords that you know your customers are searching for need to be factored in to your social media. If they aren’t already, please go back to each and every one of your accounts and take a look at the words you’re using to describe your company. If they are different from what people would search for to find your company, you should rethink the way you’r describing yourself. It’s important. Did you know that many people, if they are already on Facebook would rather search for a company there than open a new tab and go to Google? It’s true. Make sure that when people go to your social media sites they can identify what your business does in seconds – because that’s literally all the time they will spend on you before moving on to anther company they can comprehend clearly.

Another note I want to mention while talking about SEO is Google+. Ah yes, the dreaded Google+… It may seem like no one is using it and that may be correct, but there is one very significant benefit of having your business there: SEO. Google Maps show brick and mortar businesses in local search results and links them to their Google+ pages. You can see insights (analytics) on your Google+ page as well and your YouTube account, that’s also incorporated. Woof! That sounded like a mouthful, but it’s all there. As long as you use a tool like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule your posts in Google+ (making sure to use the right keywords and hashtags) you can use the same content that you’re posting on Facebook. It’s like pressing the Staples button, easy.

Today, customers do their research and if you are not active on social media and current with your business information, it will be difficult for them to consider you for business. They don’t call it the instant gratification generation for nothing.