8 Tips to Keep on Brand with Your Digital Marketing

8 Tips to Keep on Brand with Your Digital Marketing

In today’s digital marketing world, staying on brand with your marketing can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. All it takes is a little planning ahead. Let’s look at a few tips that will help. 

  1. Determine your brand and message. This should be done when setting up your business so this step should be easy!
  2. Refer to your style guide often to keep your color and logo the same throughout.
  3. It’s important to have one person creating your social media. Be sure to have your brand voice, tone, and imagery examples available.
  4. Schedule your posts in advance. This will help you keep on brand because you aren’t rushing trying to decide what to post at the last minute.
  5. Document your social media process for new hires. Include how and where to find content and images.
  6. If you have a team, assign one person to approve the content.
  7. Set your tone and voice and be sure it remains consist on all marketing outlets.
  8. Have a checklist to keep posts brand focused. Successful digital marketing cannot happen without guidelines. 

 Each platform handles information differently but if you follow the guidelines you have put in place, your marketing will convey your brand message in a way that will get you noticed! 

Contact us should you wish to set up a time to discuss your marketing. 

Facebook Data Tracking and Privacy

Facebook Data Tracking and Privacy

Ever feel like someone is watching you? Well, if you are on Facebook they are! Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been in the news quite a bit trying to defend their Facebook data tracking process. (You can read a breakdown of Zuckerberg’s testimony here.) “They don’t delete anything, and that’s a general policy,” said Gabriel Weinberg, the founder of DuckDuckGo, which offers internet privacy tools. He added that data was kept around to eventually help brands serve targeted ads. Which is good if you are a business investing in Facebook ads, but not so much if you are a user.

This got me wondering what they have on me so I downloaded my data. It’s crazy what they have! Seeing everyone in my  contact list included in the data is an eye opening experience. Let’s look at how you can download your information along with some privacy settings:

Beth Gautier, a Facebook spokeswoman said: “When you delete something, we remove it so it’s not visible or accessible on Facebook.” Which is true, they just hang on to it though so it’s useful to them. Of course, there is always the option of deleting your Facebook account.

What do you think about all of this tracking? Will you be deleting your profile or do you feel Facebook is not a necessary evil, especially if you are a small business owner?

6 Reasons You Need to Be Doing Facebook Live

The buzz around Facebook Live started last year with the talk of 2017 being “the year of the video” and so far it’s lived up to the hype. One of the biggest platforms for video is turning out to be Facebook Live and there are several reasons.

  1. It’s easy! Doing a FB live video can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. It can be anything from an impromptu comment you would like to make to your followers or a practiced, professionally filmed production happening live, i.e. workshop or conference.
  2. Your audience will love seeing the “real” you – Unplanned and unrehearsed live videos let your followers see you are a real person, the actual face behind your brand. It makes you seem more relatable. Take this opportunity to show some personality!
  3. Priority posting – FB now has over 1.7 billion, yes BILLION, monthly active users. With Facebook’s algorithm gives priority posting to live video this gives you an unrivaled opportunity to reach a wider audience. Your organic reach will be much higher with live video than with regular posts.
  4. More traffic – With the ability to reach more users, live video will drive more traffic to your Facebook page than standard video content or regular posts. Facebook said recently that live videos can drive 10 times more comments because of the real time connection with followers.
  5. Choice of page, profile, or event – You can “go live” from your personal profile, your FB page, group, or event an event if you responded as going. You will need to have the FB Pages Manager app to stream live from your Page.
  6. Lots of ideas to stream live – You can hold Q&A sessions, product demos, live steam an event, live tutorials and workshops, interviews, behind scene looks.

One of the most important things to remember when doing a Facebook live event is to be sure you have a strong WiFi connection or 4G.  You want to be sure your viewers can see you!

So you might be thinking you’ve never seen a live video from me. This is one of those times when I use the phrase my mother used often…..Do as I say, not as I do!  As I sit here and tell you it’s okay to just do a quick impromptu video, I think to myself that no one wants to see me without make up on! I don’t “get made up” on a daily basis. That’s just one of the perks from working from home.  ?  But you know what?  It’s really just an excuse. Who really cares, right?  So who’s with me? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours!

7 Ways to Make a Lasting First Impression on Facebook

When consumers are thinking of buying a product or service they go to the internet to do a little research. Social media profiles are often amongst the top results in search listings for brand names. Consumers will probably see your Facebook page before they see your website. That should tell you how important it is to use your social media to create and build a trust worthy brand.  In fact, social media channels are search engines too and many times consumers go directly to Facebook or other social media channels for research.

While your website is filled with information about your products or services, social media can work to build trust with consumers by allowing them to see the beyond the advertising and see what a company is about daily as the content changes.

Each one of the tactics below is simple and easy to do but when you take in the overall effect, you will see how your Facebook Page will help consumers believe they can trust you and that you are the right choice.

  1. Verify your page – At one time Facebook only allowed celebrities and major brands to verify their pages so you would know it was real person or brand and not an impostor. Now, if you are a legitimate company, you can get verified too. You do need proof you are a real business by providing a business phone number, a utility bill with the business name or your articles of incorporation.
  2. Personal branding – Be sure to use your branding elements when creating your page. Stay consistent with your logo, color scheme, and style.
  3. About page – Here is where you can really say something about your core values as a business and let consumers know important company details. You can add links to other social media accounts, link to your website or specific products, and include all of your contact information.
  4. Show some personality – Social media is not about selling your product or service. It’s about creating engagement with current or potential clients. Showing product demonstrations, behind the scenes videos or images, even pets and family can help to show that there are real people behind the brand.
  5. Include brand influencers – You know those people who everyone knows? If you can, include pictures of yourself with them or tag them in relevant posts. Only if you know them. Don’t just tag random influencers, that’s just bad social media etiquette and they could end up blocking you. This will help bring a new audience to your page.
  6. Share good news – Did you get a write up or mention on the news? Post it so your followers can share in the excitement with you.
  7. Facebook Live – This is huge and only getting bigger. Again, your follows will be able to see you are an actual person behind the brand and will be able to interact with you live. Facebook Live videos get a higher organic reach than recorded videos.

Social media allows you to make a good first impression, and since you only have one chance at a first impression, better make it great! Contact us if you would like us to evaluate your first impression!

What Happens to My Facebook Account After I’m Gone?

Have you ever thought about what happens to your Facebook account when you pass away?  What happens to all the pictures, videos, and memories you have shared? With a little planning, you can actually control what happens to your account after you are gone. The key is deciding now how you want things handled at that time.

If Facebook is made aware that a person has passed away, it’s their policy to memorialize the account.

According to Facebook, memorialized accounts are a place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away.

Features of a memorialized account include:

  • The word Remembering will be shown next to the person’s name on their profile
  • Depending on the privacy settings of the account, friends can share memories on the memorialized Timeline
  • Content the person shared (ex: photos, posts) stays on Facebook and is visible to the audience it was shared with
  • Memorialized profiles don’t appear in public spaces such as in suggestions for People You May Know, ads or birthday reminders
  • Login information is not shared with anyone, even if a legacy contact has been named. No one will be able to post as the deceased profile.

Besides memorializing the account, you do have other choices:

  1. Assign a legacy contact to manage your account – A legacy contact is someone you choose to manage your account after you pass away. They can pin a post to your timeline, respond to friend requests and update your profile picture. They cannot post as you or see any messages.
  1. Deactivate the account Deactivating your account will disable your profile and remove your name and photo from most things you have shared on Facebook. Your name will still appear in friend’s lists along with any messages you have sent.
  1. Delete the account The account and all images, videos, and posts will be deleted.

Here’s a short video to show you where to find the Facebook settings to set up your legacy contact or let your wishes known:

Now that you know your options, put in your requests for how you want things handled and choose a legacy contact if needed. Facebook offers a great FAQ section for just this topic.

A Quick and Easy Tip to Get More Views on Your Facebook Posts

A Quick and Easy Tip to Get More Views on Your Facebook Posts

Ever wonder if there was a trick to getting more views on your Facebook posts? Well, there isn’t really a trick, but you can find out the optimal time to post your content. Facebook has wonderful insights that show you all kinds of stats about your posts. In fact, you can actually see when your followers are online. Simply put, go to your Facebook page, click Insights, then Posts and viola!  There it is!

times to post on Facebook

Schedule your Facebook posts for when you have the most followers online. It’s not a magic solution, but it will help.  Here is a quick video to walk you through it.

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