We think of social media as a way to reach disparate audiences spread around the country or globe. But social media marketing can also work on a local scale. For brick-and-mortar businesses offering a unique atmosphere or great dining, social media recommendations from locals can help drive customers through the door in ways that can be much more impactful than traditional advertising. Continue reading “The Big Benefits of Social Media for Marketing Local”
Category: Social Media
How Often, and When, Should You Post on Social Media?
At Strategic Communications, we are strong advocates for social media marketing. The challenge faced by many businesses — particularly smaller organizations without a sophisticated marketing department with the ability to conduct focused market research — is that it’s not always easy to tell how those efforts contribute to growing revenue. Consequently, it’s hard to know just how much social media marketing to do.
We feel strongly that some presence is generally better than no presence. However, what is the marginal benefit of posting five tweets per day instead of four? Continue reading “How Often, and When, Should You Post on Social Media?”
Engaging Employees Productively in Social Media Marketing Efforts
It’s not always easy to tie marketing spend to an increase in revenue — even defining a standard way to measure return on marketing investment (ROMI or MROI) can be difficult — which can often mean that marketing managers struggle to increase their budgets. While we wholeheartedly stand by the fact that a well-crafted and well-implemented marketing strategy will bring in far more revenue than it costs to put in place, there’s always room for low-cost or no-cost strategies. And, as we’ve stressed before, employees can be great brand ambassadors. Continue reading “Engaging Employees Productively in Social Media Marketing Efforts”
Best Practices in Making Social (Media) Connections
We often think of social media as the revolutionary communication tool for reaching a wide range of consumers in the modern marketing environment — and for good reason. It’s a phenomenal tool for inexpensively and intimately communicating with enormous audiences and potential markets. But some commentators point out that the focus on the business-to-consumer benefits of social media might be overshadowing important opportunities for business-to-business relationship building. Continue reading “Best Practices in Making Social (Media) Connections”
Preparing for a Social Media Crisis: Before it Happens
At Strategic Communications, we are firm believers in the value of social media and online publicity for a business. It’s a huge part of what we do and what we advise our clients to do. But, while the impact of social media on a business is overwhelmingly positive, there are occasionally situations that have the potential to be extremely damaging to a company’s reputation and livelihood. We’re talking, of course, about the dreaded social media crisis. Continue reading “Preparing for a Social Media Crisis: Before it Happens”
What the Olympic Committee and Entrepreneur Media Have in Common
How do you get so big, and so powerful, that you can tell other big and powerful organizations what they can and can’t say—and prohibit them from using very commonly used words and phrases? The Olympic Committee’s ban on non-sponsor brands ostensibly does just that as ESPN recently reported. They’re even banning non-sponsors from using the hashtags #Rio2016 and #TeamUSA. (Sheesh; hope I don’t get in trouble for that—I’m not an official sponsor, after all.) Those aren’t the only usages that are being banned though. According to a Mashable article, other banned words include “Rio” and “Rio de Janeiro.” Huh? Continue reading “What the Olympic Committee and Entrepreneur Media Have in Common”
CTAs Don’t Belong On Social Media
Social media isn’t about blatant promotion, it’s about subtle connections. Yet every once in a while we find ourselves working with a client who (in our opinion) steps over the promotional line. CTAs (calls to action) don’t belong on social media. Social is, or should be, more subtle. Continue reading “CTAs Don’t Belong On Social Media”
Leveraging LinkedIn in Your Job Search
With graduations on the horizon many are actively engaged in job search. LinkedIn can be your best friend.
It’s probably no surprise that LinkedIn is a great tool for job seekers. After all, unlike other, more social, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc., LinkedIn is intentionally geared toward the professional sphere. But, chances are that, unless you’re in sales, own a business or are in the market for a new job, you probably aren’t spending a lot of time on LinkedIn. You should be. Continue reading “Leveraging LinkedIn in Your Job Search”
Managing and Monitoring Your Social Connections
Many small businesses understand the importance of social media for their marketing efforts. Their owners or managers may be active on a variety of platforms — from Facebook and LinkedIn to Twitter and Instagram — and many run blogs with information relevant to their target markets. At the same time, many small business owners are close socially with their employees. They may play on common recreational league teams, go out together for happy hours, etc.
Just as there should be boundaries in your social interactions with employees, there should be certain ground rules for engaging with employees on social media. Here are some key considerations. Continue reading “Managing and Monitoring Your Social Connections”
Being (Appropriately) Social Online: The Etiquette of Social Media Engagement
As the name suggests, social media is often a very informal means of conveying information. It’s familiar, colloquial and often has a personal touch – it’s social. So, when you’re using social media to support your business’ marketing needs, how should you behave? What’s the appropriate etiquette? Continue reading “Being (Appropriately) Social Online: The Etiquette of Social Media Engagement”