7 Ideas for your Back-to-School Campaign on Social Media
August 16, 2018 In Blog No Comment

 

After reading this headline, you may be thinking “but I don’t have a back-to school social media campaign.” Well, here’s the thing. Back-to-school is relevant for almost any business or industry. As a parent or guardian, think of all the time spent in the preparation for getting kids back to school. Think about what kids want for the perfect back-to-school experience. Sometimes that preparation goes beyond school supplies and clothing. Now that we’ve got that cleared up, it’s time to give you some ideas to work with.

Segment your audience

The great thing about the back-to-school campaign is that it’s so broad. Your target audience can be divided into three main groups: kids, parents, and teachers. Choose one or more and maintain a focus on your audience. Doing so will keep your campaign cohesive and is more likely to generate positive results.

Segment the timing of your campaign

Back-to-school is generally that elephant in the room throughout the summer. Come August, the elephant’s presence is well-known to all. Decide when you want to launch your campaign and then plan accordingly. The key is to make sure you’re timely. If your campaign is launched in October, then it won’t be relevant.

Celebrate with parents

Back-to-school is a time many parents celebrate. They are no longer hearing the words “I’m bored” from their kids. Well, at least not as often. If your target audience is parents, then it’s time to get creative with the ways in which you can market your products or services. Maybe it’s something as simple as saying “Feeling stressed from back-to-school preparations? Then treat yourself to a spa treatment.” Thoughtful touches like these will be well received by your audience.

Post staff photos on social media

Similar to the way in which parents post photos of their kids on their first day of school, encourage your staff to do the same. But rather than posting photos of kids, you can post photos of your staff holding a sign saying what grade their child is going to school. People do business with people and your followers are more likely trust the people they’re doing business with if they get to know a bit about them.

Post photos of the products that are relevant for back-to-school

In doing so, you’re helping to make preparations a little bit easier. If you’re in the food industry, you can post photos of a school lunch with your product in it. School lunches are one of the biggest pain points for parents and photos such as those may help to remove some of the guess work.

Promote the idea of making the home back-to-school ready

Back-to-school is about spending more time indoors and less time outdoors. The weather gets cooler and kids tend to spend more time indoors doing homework or playing inside after school. If your industry is focused on home comfort or home renovations, then you can inform your audience on the products and services that make your home a welcoming environment when the kids come home from school. If your campaign is targeted to parents, then maybe your messaging is focused about the products and services parents have more time to take advantage of.

Ask questions

This tip applies for any social media post. Posts with questions invite the opportunity for comments. When it comes to back-to-school, make sure your question is focused on back-to-school but also relevant to your industry. Let’s say you sell books. Rather than asking a broad question such as “how do your kids get ready for back to school?” you could ask “what book will you be reading to your child as a bedtime story the night before the first day of school?”

 

What ideas have you used for your back to school messaging on social media? Leave a comment below!

 

 

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6 Types of Hashtags
August 7, 2018 In Blog No Comment

Hashtags. You see them everywhere. They’re used in many ways. Sometimes they’re used as subtext for a post or sometimes they’re used to boost overall reach. When it’s the latter case, it’s a good idea to be strategic with hashtags. Doing so will encourage audiences to either use them or better engage with your posts. Here is a description of the six types of hashtags.

Brand

Brands often use hashtags to convey a message about their brand or increase brand awareness. Brand hashtags can include the brand name or a slogan. Examples include: #TweetsFromtheSeat or #IKEAFamily. In case you didn’t know, the first example was a hashtag for Charmin toilet paper. It’s a tactic that’s somewhat cringe worthy but also clever at the same time. Toilet paper might be difficult to promote on social media, but this hashtag makes it less so. The hashtag was released by Charmin in 2016 and people still continue to use it.

Content

Content hashtags are often simple words or phrases that can be used in any context. Brands can use them to connect products with their audience. The hashtag #tiles can be applied to a multitude of contexts.

It can be used to promote a workshop.

It can also be used for travel.

Or, it can be used to express this thing you have with floors.

You get the picture. Overall, content hashtags invite flexibility and creativity.

Campaign

If you want more people to know about a specific cause or campaign, then it’s a good idea to have a hashtag associated with it. These hashtags are specific and concise so that people can easily remember them and use them when relevant. Examples include: #Ontario150 or #ShareACoke.

Location

Location hashtags bring awareness to a specific place. The name of the location is directly in the hashtag so that audiences know what specific location is being referenced. Examples include #ygk or #the6ix. Normally you would find these hashtags in association with travel and tourism. Brands have also used location hashtags to reach out to audiences from that location to inform them of their location or where their products can be found.

Trending

When you want to share your thoughts on a current event through social media, then it’s more common to share a trending hashtag that is associated with that occasion. #HumboldtStrong is one example of an trending hashtag which was attached to messages of support and solidarity.

Event

If you’re hosting an event, and you want more people to know about it through social media, then event hashtags are the way to go. They can also be used outside the realm of social media. Depending on the nature of your event, there are a number of ways you can remind guests to use your hashtag.

Event hashtags can be used before, during, and after an event. One example of this includes #RoyalWedding2018. This hashtag was used in anticipation of the event, while people were watching the event (at 4 A.M. nonetheless), and after the event to share thoughts on how magical it all was.

What is your experience with using hashtags? Leave a comment below!

 

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What is IGTV and What It Means for Businesses
July 25, 2018 In Blog No Comment

It’s been 5 years since Instagram has introduced video. Since it’s been a widely successful medium, Instagram has added a new way to experience video on your mobile device through IGTV.  Here’s what you need to know about it.

What is IGTV?

IGTV provides allows user to create and view vertical, ad free, long-form videos on their mobile device. Videos can last between 10 minutes to 1-hour long.

Here is how IGTV appears on an Instagram profile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can use IGTV in one of two ways. One of your options is to click on the IGTV channel icon in the profile and then select which video you would like to view. You can also view IGTV videos through the app or directly from your profile by clicking on the IGTV icon at the top right-hand corner of your screen.

Here is another example.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Channels can be created on your profile after you have downloaded the IGTV app. Videos cannot be recorded from the IGTV itself but you can upload any MP4 file to your channel.

What it means for business

Businesses now have more opportunities for storytelling and increasing their reach. Since it’s such a new feature, users are more likely to check out these stories. When it comes to consuming content, variety is the spice of life that the general public is craving. IGTV adequately fulfills that craving through this fresh and intuitive feature. It’s like having a subscription to a TV provider that shows everything you want to see whenever you want to see it. Users won’t have to search for you in order to see your content. It will just appear as soon as they turn on their IGTV based on the level of engagement with your account.

What is your experience with IGTV?  Leave a comment below!

 

 

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4 Fantastic Features of Facebook Messenger Bot
July 5, 2018 In Blog No Comment

 

There’s a new guy in the Facebook neighbourhood who goes by the name of Messenger bot. Well, relatively new. Messenger bot has been around for over a year now but it’s not a well-known feature among Facebook users. Basically, it’s similar to an automated e-mail marketing tool such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact. But there are some slight differences and benefits to this feature which go beyond the capacities of these aforementioned platforms.

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6 Tips for Boosting Engagement on Your Facebook Event Page
June 28, 2018 In Blog No Comment

Like all social media tools, a set it and forget it approach is not applicable when it comes to managing a Facebook event page. There are a number of ways you can leverage your event page by taking a few simple and consistent measures.

Create an eye-catching cover image

Doing so will immediately spark the excitement you want to achieve with your event. Use a photo, event flyer, or image that adequately captures what your event is about. The sea of events on Facebook is vast and mighty. That being said, it can be easy for yours to become forgettable if it’s not making a memorable impression.

Make the best use of your network

Ask partnering organizations to add your event to their page. It’s a highly effective way to increase exposure to your event. Simply send an e-mail or Facebook message to those individuals or organizations with your request along with a link to your event page and digital flyer. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to follow through.

If you want to take your efforts a step further, you can post a link to your event page on the timelines of organizations or partners who would be interested in attending your event.

Use Eventbrite to sell tickets for your event

To keep track of registration, Eventbrite helps you to monitor and manage registration for your event. It also gives you the assurance that there will be people attending even if the event is free. There’s a new feature introduced that allows you to link your Facebook event page with Eventbrite. It’s a convenient feature that your guests will appreciate. Creating an Eventbrite link will also increase exposure to your event because it will show up in their listings.

Create posts for event page

Now that you’ve captured an audience of people who are interested in your event or are planning to attend. Treat it like a social media page for your business. Regular posting means regular engagement. Regular engagement then leads to commitment to your event. You can post event updates, behind-the-scenes photos, Facebook Live videos and anything else that you think might be of interest to your audience. In the case of Jennifer Baker Consulting Ltd.’s upcoming workshop, we’ve decided to post the top 10 reasons to attend our event.  Here’s an example.

This post, along with 9 others will be posted as a way to build up excitement and interest in the event itself.

Build a sense of urgency

There is an art to doing this without building a sense of desperation. You know that whole concept of fear of missing out? Well you can make it real with your event. Let your followers know about an early bird deadline or limited spots so that they don’t miss out on all that you have to offer with your event.

Promote your event hashtag

That is of course if you have one set up. It’s not a mandatory component of hosting an event but it’s certainly an effective one. The goal of an event hashtag is to get other people involved and spread your intended message. It’s a good idea to make sure that your audience knows about it as soon as possible. Your Facebook event page is a great place to put out your call-to-action to use that hashtag.

What have been some of the most effective strategies you’ve used for promoting your event on Facebook? Let us know in the comments below!

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