Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts

Tuesday 31 March 2015

Social Media Toolkit Reblog

We're pleased to launch our new project... Social Media Toolkits - an online hub of social media guidance and toolkits used by some of the best-loved brands.

If you would like to browse our collection of social media toolkits head to: www.socialmediatoolkits.co.uk


We’ve been blogging about social media for two years, and this is our new home to make it more easy, accessible and simple for you to pick up social media tips, knowledge and advice from the team.

The aim of our new online hub is to bring you the very best toolkits to help you create, develop and manage a successful social media presence for a company, brand or offering.
Click here to browse the collection and choose from the following toolkits....

Awareness Day Calendar
Packed with more than 600 events including national awareness days, sporting events, album releases and holidays. This 2015 calendar is designed to inspire your social media content. Each event has been researched to find the relevant social media links and hashtags for 2015.

Social Media Content Calendar
If you know you need to plan your social media content, but not sure where to start this content calendar template is there to ensure your content is inspired and planned effectively. Inside you’ll find examples and tips on how best to fill your calendar too.

Social Media Strategy Template
Let’s face it, without a plan, you plan to fail! This strategy template is designed to help you plan your social media activity for a long period of time, including all the elements you need to consider and examples and tips throughout to help you create your very own bespoke strategy.

Social Media Evaluation Template
Evaluating your social media activity is so important in letting you know what’s working and what needs to be improved. This evaluation template includes all the activity that can be evaluated, using online tools for free, including how to evaluate your social media platforms with helpful tips and examples throughout.

Social Media Audit Template
If you want to regularly audit your social media activity in a simple but effective way, this toolkit will enable you to give yourself an overview of stats. It’s also helpful in making quick comparisons against competitors too.

Social Media Recipe for Success eBook
This jam-packed eBook gives you the insider knowledge of how to create a successful social media presence. It contains hints, tips and real-life examples so you can fully understand what sets an ordinary social media presence apart from an outstanding one.

We hope you find our toolkits helpful and inspiring, and rest assured we have lots more to come your way too including a Social Media Policy Toolkit which will be available to download in March.

If you have any questions please email us at smile@katieandjane.com and remember to keep up to date with us on Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ where we will post regular social media advice and tips too.

SMT team

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Wednesday 20 August 2014

Social Media Recipe for Success: The Sequel - Part 3 - Who, Where and Why?

We briefly touched on exploring social networks and discovering your audience in parts one and two of the social media recipe for success sequel but, we know that the myth of being active on hundreds of platforms rather than being really successful on a few targeted ones is an important issue.


The aim of social media is to connect directly with an audience in a timely, unique and engaging manner allowing them the opportunity to get to know the brand personality further and truly communicate in a way that means something to audience members. We are often baffled when clients want to be active on every social media platform they've ever heard of when they're either not using the 'power three' correctly as it is or their audience simply aren't on many platforms. Here's a few steps to ensure you're on the right path for your brand...

Step One: Who?


Who is your social media target audience? A good place to start is by looking at your brand's target audience and going from there. The social media target audience will be different to your usual customers in most cases; they will be more defined and probably different on each network.

It's also a good idea to think about which type of person you aspire to have as part of your social media community. We've seen some brands end up with poor social media success after focusing on who their current audience is, many of which aren't on social, as opposed to who they'd like to be communicating with online.

In order to identify who your social media target's personality is delve deeper and think about what online media sources they like to read, which brands they love and even which celebrities and high-profile people they follow. Start to research into your ideal target and everything around them online to build up a fully-rounded picture.

Step Two: Where?

You know who you want to be targeting but now... Where are they!? Of course, the majority of people from all walks of life will be active on the 'power three'; Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.


Here's a few key stats for you...
  • There are 1.28 billion monthly active Facebook users with over 223 million people on Facebook in Europe
  • Facebook's most common age demographic is age 25 to 34 and 53% are female and 47% male
  • Twitter's primary age demographic are users aged between 18 and 29
  • Users tend to use Twitter for news consumption, 83% reported seeing news on the platform
  • YouTube's users are split equally between male and female and 46% are under 18 years of age
  • YouTube is the third biggest driver of traffic to websites after Facebook and Stumbleupon

If they are right for your brand, these three are a good place to start to build up your online presence and to learn how to make social media work for you but, the new guys need to come in somewhere too - if they are where your target audience are active on of course, remember quality over quantity!
  • Within internet users, Pinterest is now more popular than Twitter!
  • Pinterest attracts older people - 23% of internet users aged 50+ use Pinterest
  • Instagram has over 150 million users with 90% being under 35 years old and 68% of users are female
  • Instagram is one of the most engaged networks with about 60% of users logging in on a daily basis
  • 300 million people use LinkedIn and its key audience are aged between 30 and 49 years old with a high income and education
  • 40% of users check into LinkedIn daily and spend 17 minutes on the site per month

Step Three: Why?

We always say how important setting objectives are so that you know where you want to be online as a brand and can set mini-goals to get there but, looking into objectives further, setting defined objectives for each of your audience segments and also objectives for each of your platforms.


For example, you may have identified parents aged between 30 and 40 as one of your target audiences for your Facebook page - a goal may be to recruit some of these users as ambassadors in six months time in order to do that your objectives for this target audience and platform could be...

1.    Create an engaged community of 1000 Facebook fans with 5% engagement rates within two months
2.    Identify potential ambassadors within four months through daily contact with fans, frequent questions put to fans and research into key influencers

As with all goals whether they are being set for social media or not, they need to be SMART; specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related.

Take a look at our previous two blog posts that accompany this success series or click on the right for all our social media posts.

Happy planning!


Jane x 

Take our online Facebook eCourse to plan your first social media strategy here. 

Download our handy social media toolkits here.

How To Become a YouTube Superstar!
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Tuesday 10 June 2014

Social Media Recipe for Success: The Sequel - Part 2 - Why are you on Social Media?

After the first part of our sequel to the Recipe for Social Media Success ‘Understand Social Media’, we are now onto the next stage – and one that many people overlook; Why Are You On Social Media?

For many companies social media is a route they cannot overlook in their marketing activity, which usually begins with a foundation of getting lots of followers, fans and likes for something they want customers to buy. Social Media works best when the consumer is put at the heart of the activity and when companies are direct about who they want to connect and engage with and most importantly; why. Here are five things to remember before jumping onto every social media platform going for your business…

#1  Don’t start out with tunnel-vision and aim to get a following for something you want people to buy, start out by realising that social media connects you to your existing and future customers every single day. If you want them to buy into your brand or product, then use social media to bring to life the amazing things about your company, the people and the ethos behind the offering or product.


#2  Have a really long hard think about your purpose for being on social media, without a reason you have no goals or objectives when it comes to planning your strategy – a sure fire way for activity to plateau after a while!

#3  Think about who your target audience is, and don’t say everybody! If your consumer demographic is broad, then start by tackling one by one and tailoring your ideas and content to suit the lives, thoughts, loves and hates of that audience – get on a level with them.


#4  Research into where that audience is when it comes to social media, it might be that different segments of your audience are typically on different platforms. For example, Facebook could be a successful route to your audience 35+, while Instagram could help you to connect with a younger audience.

#5  Stay dedicated to building an engaged following organically. Social media advertising can be a great tool to find new customers that would like to hear from you, but attracting thousands of new followers doesn’t happen overnight and usually when it does, it’s too good to be true!


We’ll be bringing you more social media musings in the next few months, but for now here’s a list of our past blog posts, we hope you find them useful. To receive our newsletter each month filled with handy social media tips sign up at www.katieandjane.com

Take our online Facebook eCourse to plan your first social media strategy here. 

Download our handy social media toolkits here.

How To Become a YouTube Superstar!

Katie x


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Thursday 29 May 2014

Five Things You Need to Know about Facebook Advertising

Recently we came across a new business email selling services to handle Facebook Advertising and it prompted us to think about how advertising on Facebook can still be a confusing marketing tool. We don’t profess to know everything about advertising algorithms but we do know it is much more simple than it looks to manage your own ads. So, here are five things to think about when creating your own Facebook Adverts…

#1 You can target your adverts
It’s really simple to set your target audience for your set of Facebook Adverts. It's best to go niche (and not to try and target the whole wide world at once!) so before you start carefully think about which target market you want to reach through Facebook, what their interests and likes are, and their demographics.


#2 You can set your budgets
We’re not talking thousands here, but if you can put aside a small but decent budget to run adverts each month, then you’ll see the best results. Facebook make it easy to set a budget per day or a lifetime budget so you keep control and you are regularly updated on how your ads are performing via notifications and emails. Also, you can edit your ads at any time, even when they have already gone live.

#3 You can measure your success
We find Insights are greatly underused by brand teams and business owners on Facebook, especially when it comes to advertising reports. Facebook will give you data into how each of your ads have performed so at the end of each campaign you can delve into what worked and what didn’t, evaluate the images or text used and think about how you can adapt your future ads to make them better.


#4 You can find the time
If you are regularly posting engaging content on Facebook, then it really won’t take up too much extra time to set your ads to run alongside your activity. Once you've created the ads and Facebook approves them (which can take as little as 30 minutes), you need to set a time frame for the ads to run and then you can carry on with creating a great Facebook presence for your growing audience.

#5 You don’t need to be an expert
Every expert, was once a novice and the same goes for Facebook Advertising. If you manage your social media, then Facebook advertising should be integrated into your activity, promoting your engaging content to your target audience. Once you run your first ad campaign, you’ll see how simple and effective it is. Plus, if you run your Facebook Advertising yourself you can ensure every penny of your budget is spent on the ads and not taken up by an agency fee. However, if you really do not have the resources to create and manage the ads then do seek the advice of an experienced and credible expert in the field who can explain every step of the process to you.


We hope we have inspired and encouraged you to have a go at creating your own Facebook Adverts. We created a post on about the difference between Facebook and Twitter advertising which you can read here and below is a selection of our other blog posts on social media to help you further.

Katie x

www.katieandjane.com 

Content Schedule Template

Awareness Day Calendar

Facebook Strategy eCourse

How To Become a YouTube Superstar!
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Tuesday 27 May 2014

Social Media Recipe for Success: The Sequel - Part I - Understand Social Media

Back in 2013 we blogged about our popular 'social media recipe for success' series and now, another year on, we thought we'd take the previous parts of strategy, content, organisation and evaluation and add to the recipe with this post 'Understand Social Media'...


By no means do you have to be an expert to have a successful social media presence but you do need to understand the basics of social media (from a brand's point-of-view rather than a personal one) and ultimately have the passion for social media to take it forward.

Step One - Use Social Media
Yes, posting on social media is very different from a brand or individual's perspective but actively using social media yourself can help you to understand what your consumers want to see and how to post effectively. From now on, when you are on social media, take notes of other brands you like the activity of, record how you use social networks as a consumer and jot down any areas of each platform you don't understand.


Step Two - Learn
In order to effectively understand how to use social media for your brand we'd recommend you get learning in your own time! There are so many great blogs (favourites are Mashable, Social Media Examiner and ours of course!) that give you to-the-point, simple information so you can answer the questions you had from step one.


What's great about social media is you can test out your new knowledge on your own social platforms before experimenting on the brand page but remember; you can't really 'go wrong' on social media as long as your content is appropriate, it's all about trying things, if they don't work discover why and move on.

Step Three - Nail Your Plan


So now you know how to use social media and have a basic knowledge - it's time to get started with your strategy. For a simple strategy you need to answer...
  • Why do I want to be active on social media?
  • What are my objectives?
  • Which platforms is my target audience on?
  • What are my three key messages?

Of course this is a very basic strategy starting point but it gives you a few things to think about before simply jumping onto social media with no plan at all. We created a Facebook Strategy eCourse with SkillShare which gives video lessons and practical exercises finishing with a full Facebook strategy at the end here - take a look at the chapters even if you don't fancy completing the course for an outline.

Step Four - Constantly Explore
Once you nail your strategy and become active on social media you may find yourself sticking to one platform that you personally enjoy or you are having more success on but you need to be open to exploring other platforms.


You may want to achieve an objective of 'increase web referrals from social media by 25%' and you may be doing a good job of that on Twitter with external links and interesting tweets but did you know that Pinterest drives the most traffic on the web after Facebook? Maybe your users are more visual and enjoy pinning and repinning images... increase your research and you may find you're able to reach even more people online.

Each month, set a goal of exploring the pros and cons for your brand of some of the emerging platforms like Google+, Vine and Snapchat. This will also help you expand your social media knowledge and spark ideas for you to utilise on the core social media networks.

We'll blog about part II of our new 'social media recipe for success' soon but in the meantime take a look at the links below for other social media blog posts you may enjoy!

Jane x
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Tuesday 13 May 2014

Facebook: The Forgotten Features

For many brands Facebook is the social media platform which they have been active on the longest and most are comfortable with their Facebook strategy, tone of voice and content. However, there are still some Facebook features that are being overlooked which are so simple to use, but pack a mighty punch for your social media efforts if used correctly – so we thought we’d share a few of them with you...

#1 Pin to Top
This feature is found top right of your post and allows you to pin that post to the top of your page so important information doesn’t get lost down the page. It's great for competitions or timely news updates as the post will stay pinned to the top for 7 days, but if you’d like to unpin it earlier – just hit unpin.


#2 Highlight
This is a lovely feature and can also be found top right of your post. This especially works well if you have a great eye-catching image you want to show off. By clicking ‘Highlight’ it expands your post across the width of your page, increasing the post in size, and increasing reach. Posts with images achieve 120% more engagement than those without so a good rule to have is to include an image with every post and get highlighting!

#3 The Timeline
Could this be the most forgotten Facebook feature? The Timeline is an underused feature that allows you to input dates in your company’s history – we like to use ours for important milestones and fun facts. Brands can also utilise this feature by creating competitions around it, for example, asking fans to answer a question about an interesting piece of company history by scrolling through the Timeline to answer and enter the competition.


#4 Edit
Halleluiah! You can now edit your post even after it appears on your page. This is great for editing after you've seen how the post looks on the page. For companies with a number of admins, you’ll also be able to see which admin member has posted each post & who has edited it too.

#5 Insights
Use them! This is the best way to get an idea of who your current audience is and work out how alike or unlike they are to your target audience. The insights can be found in the admin panel and allow you to look at your posts and page content to evaluate how well each are received and compare what works and what doesn’t. We advise you to simply have a play within the Insights panel and see what you can discover about your fans. Remember always evaluate your efforts!


We will be covering insights and evaluating social media presences in more detail in a blog post coming soon, so stay tuned!

Katie x
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Thursday 3 April 2014

How To Choose a Social Media Agency - Reblogged from She Owns It #katieandjane

The social media industry is a very noisy world, one that can be very overwhelming with the amount of companies offering social media services, from the one-man band LinkedIn expert, and the PR companies with an add-on social media offering, to your giant digital and social media agencies all over the world.

We frequently come across brand teams that either aren’t happy with their social media agencies or have signed up to outsource a social media campaign (paying a hefty fee) without any knowledge of what success looks like. Outsourcing sometimes is the only way to put the resource, energy, ideas and clout behind a brand’s social media activity, and some of the very best social campaigns have been delivered by outstanding agencies. However, brands need to be able to make informed decisions about social media and we’ve put together a few simple questions to ask and thoughts to keep in mind when choosing the best social media agency to work with*.
* Please note we are not a social media ‘agency’ so are here to give impartial advice! :)

#1 Do they practice what they preach?
Do they have their own social media channels, and if so do they use them? We’re not talking here about looking up an agency’s Facebook page and judging them on numbers; judge them on their content, their frequency of posts and how they interact with influential users in their industry.

#2 What does their experience look like?
Make sure you take the time look into the campaigns the agency has been an integral part of and ask them what campaigns they’ve noticed recently that they wish they’d been a part of, or could have done better. This will help you to discover what really lies at the core of their work, do they actually care about your brand and building the social media presence that you have in mind?

#3 What objectives are they offering to go alongside any social media work or campaigns?
Any activity is likely to plateau without agreed objectives and metrics in place for both parties. You need to understand what is achievable, and why you are commissioning the activity in the first place. You don’t want a campaign to reach 100,000 competition hunters that will never engage with your brand again, you want to achieve numbers based on long-term engagement with a solid strategy and objectives in place. Have a look at Kindred’s Make Mine Milk campaign to see an example case study and for more info on strategy head to our Social Media Recipe for Success Series or our social media strategy eCourse.

#4 How do they measure activity? What reporting systems for social media exclusively do they use?
In any other area, reporting back on activity allows you to calculate whether that activity is worth reinvesting money, time and resources into. It’s the same with social media, all activity should be evaluated ideally on a monthly basis and each campaign should end with a report on whether or not objectives have been met. It’s a good idea to ask your social media agency what reporting systems they have in place and what they measure. It’s also just as important to read and evaluate the report too, otherwise it will be pointless.

#5 Do they have a crisis plan if activity #fails?
If outsourcing social media activity to an agency, make sure you are all aware of what the plan of action is in advance of a ‘crisis’. If something goes wrong, it’s reflected on your company and can be massive on social. If they are a great agency they will most certainly have had to deal with similar situations as things can’t always go to plan, so make sure you research into how effectively past situations have been resolved.

Reasons to leave the room now…
  • They mentioned that you could simply buy fans and followers!
  • They called themselves a ‘social media guru’ or a ‘digital evangelist’
  • They made no mention of social media engagement and content but instead talked about the number of fans and followers you’ll get with a few posts a week
Social Media

If you have any questions or tips that have helped when choosing a great agency in the past, please let us know and we’ll do our best to share them.

See us as featured contributors and read this post on She Owns It. Good luck agency hunting!

Katie & Jane x
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Thursday 13 March 2014

How To Become a YouTube Superstar!

Did you know that the video-sharing website YouTube is the world's second biggest search engine after Google? How about that how-to videos are the most searched for videos after music?

Social Media Quotes

Many people we talk to are confident using YouTube on a personal level but are often much less confident using it for their own brand. We often get asked whether 'my brand should be on YouTube?' and, as with every platform, we say 'if your audience is there and you can create valuable, regular content for them!'. With over 1 billion unique monthly YouTube users from all over the world, the bets are that your audience is on YouTube, but how do you get started!?

One Channel, One YouTube
YouTube was created in 2005 and has been resigned many times - their newest version 'One Channel' was released in June 2013 with the aim to make the platform better for brands to interact with their audience.

Subscribers are key on YouTube and One Channel makes it easier for users to subscribe to channels. When setting objectives for your YouTube strategy increasing engagement and subscriber numbers should be up there.

A big part of One Channel is design which means better branding so select your channel art carefully. Your cover image and profile picture will give users a feel for what type of videos they're going to see and why they should subscribe to the channel.

YouTube

Getting Stuck Into YouTube
In order to have a successful YouTube presence we recommend you creating a content plan (our favourite) so that you can post a range of unique, regular content to engage and keep subscribers returning to your channel. Brands that achieve long-term success on YouTube frequently post stimulating content with that all-important value.

When selecting content for YouTube it's good to remember that people are not going on YouTube to communicate with brands but with their passions, the things that make them laugh and content that gives them information. Add value and entertainment to people's lives tailoring it to your YouTube community, rather than boring corporate brand videos!

A carefully planned video will be relevant for years giving you the ability to link back to it hundreds and hundreds of times perfect for sharing across other platforms. People prefer visual (that's why images are so important on Facebook) so use and re-use your videos across all your platforms.

Becoming a YouTube Superstar!
Ok, so you may not gain as many subscribers as, say, Justin Bieber (8.9 million) but if you can provide valuable, unique video content to your loyal subscribers you'll become a superstar in their eyes! Here are a few tips...
  • Always ask 'who is my audience?' when planning your video content and make sure it fits no matter how good you think the idea is!
  • The average length of the top ten videos is four minutes so stick to those guidelines
  • Aim to post a video at least once a week on your YouTube channel
  • Post a range of videos using your key messages to keep users returning for different types of content and to give your business credibility on YouTube
  • Think about how you can educate subscribers with your videos through how-tos, tips, FAQ, expert interviews and insider information
  • Always encourage participation and discussion so open that up around your videos on YouTube and your other social platforms

Many of the world's most successful brands on social media create unique and exclusive shows for YouTube subscribers and of course, Red Bull is there! Red Bull's YouTube channel showcases extreme sports and achievements (the Felix Baumgartner space jump has over 36 million views) giving YouTubers an insight into the brand and its passions rather than just the products.

Successful YouTube Channels

Also, YouTube Spotlight has over 17 million subscribers and is definitely worth a look. It features many trending videos (less searching for you!) and has important news update videos on the channel on a regular basis.

We believe YouTube will continue to grow in 2014 and that more and more businesses will (and need to) create unique video content for their social media users... if you can create a blog post from information, you can create a video - maybe this post should have been one!


Jane x
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Tuesday 25 February 2014

Instagram Competitions Are Taking Over!

Along with Pinterest (of course!), Instagram is one of my favourite social networks, not only for keeping up-to-date with friends but for interacting with brands too. It's a truly visual platform, initially with stills and now with 3-15 second long videos and it's really interesting to follow brands and influential users to see their innovative ways of marketing through social media.

One marketing method on Instagram is to run a competition - something which brands don't use as frequently as Facebook and Twitter competitions, but I think, for the right brand, an Instagram competition is worth 1,000 Facebook competitions!

How to Create an Interesting Instagram Competition
Although Instagram competitions may not get you tonnes of new followers, your account's interaction rates will rise and you'll drive users to share you with their friends.

Instagram Competitions

There are a number of different types of competitions on Instagram from 'like to win' to increase likes, to photo entry competitions to drive engagement. As usual, we know that planning is key here, as it is with any social media marketing activity. There's a few elements to cover when creating a successful competition...

Set Goals
Would you like more Instagram followers? Increased brand awareness? Gain further interaction on the platform? Or to up your reach? Before you start to develop a competition, think about your goals and how you're going to monitor them to track results.

Entry Method
Depending on your goals you need to consider what users need to do to enter the competition. Perhaps it's submitting a photo, liking one of your photos (lowest effort), sharing your Instagram account to their followers or simply following you.

After you've decided on your entry method, you'll need an entry page where users can see how to enter the competition. A simple and Instagram-friendly way of doing this is to create an image detailing the prize, entry information and any rules and regulations (length, eligibility, limits and how the winner will be selected, etc) then post this on your account. 

Don't forget to include an attention-grabbing title to increase interest and a unique hashtag to up your reach and enable easy monitoring. Read more about using hashtags on all the major social networking in our recent blog post here.

Market on Instagram

Promotion
Have a think about how you're going to promote your competition to new Instagrammers. You could send details in a newsletter, promote the competition on all your other social networks, think about social media advertising and also promote it on your website.

Once your competition is up-and-running make sure you promote it frequently and once it's over, learn from the results and decide whether you'd like to make it a regular, perhaps weekly, thing.

If planned and created correctly, an Instagram competition can be really beneficial for increasing reach and engagement and fantastic at generating a buzz.

Read our Instagram app review here where we talk about the basics of Instagram and give the app a score out of 10!

Instagram Accounts

See you on Instagram at BYKATIEANDJANE


Jane x
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