Tag Archive:Social Media

Your job, as a brand, is to stop the scroll.

photo credit: Anita Stafford

 

What makes you stop scrolling?

Social Scrolling: a gesture that’s become synonymous with killing time while waiting for a coffee date, or while blandly watching some sub-standard show on tv. We scroll – when we have nothing better to do.

Scrolling: The only true sport inspired by social media.

But what makes you stop?

By stop, I don’t mean to close the page you’re on and move on with something more fruitful in your life – I’m talking about the pause to read that which has just caught your attention and absorb whatever message that lies behind it.

Your job, as a brand or as someone who manages any kind of social media campaign, is to make your audience stop scrolling and read what you’re saying.

 

My scroll stop

I was recently partaking in exactly this numb-scrolling activity while waiting for the kettle to boil – and a friend of mind had shared the most amazing picture of a flower. No message, nothing profound, just something that interrupted the mundane on my wall, and hiccuped my attention to take note.

It was a picture (the one above) that she’d taken of a flower while out and about – the most beautiful and intricate design that I’ve ever seen in a bloom. It stopped me in my tracks. And for a few milliseconds, I was absorbed.  I continued scrolling, but for the rest of the day, I seemed to keep remembering what I’d stopped for.

 

What your audience looks for

Knowing how to stop the scroll comes down to a very simple thing: Understanding what your customers desire.  There is no magic recipe that translates social tactics into guaranteed winners, but there are certainly ideas that are inspired through knowing your market:

  • What turns them on?
  • What makes them feel better about themselves?
  • What upsets them?
  • What problem do you solve for them?

When you understand what your audience’s trigger points are, then you’re a huge leap ahead in understanding how to translate that into something that impacts them. And whether you choose to do that through video, imagery, promotions and deals, giveaways, access to info that others don’t have, fancy quotes or controversial comments – all of those become mediums through which you translate your customers desire into solution. And when you get it right, they’ll stop scrolling.

 


Need help re-defining your social media strategy? Get in touch and lets chat today. 


 

What’s worse than not having a social profile? Having one that sucks.

“YOU ABSOLUTELY need to be on social media,” was a discussion I heard the other day between a young 30-something year old woman and her 60+ year old manufacturing client.

Here’s a thought. You don’t HAVE to be on social media.

<gasp>what!?</gasp>

No. You don’t HAVE to do anything, unless you’re prepared to invest the time into making it good.

Admittedly, in my early days of online marketing, in my mind, establishing a social presence was not the only thing, it was THE thing that would create an impression of your brand.  But since then, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with business people from all kinds of industries, business sizes and one thing that I have learnt over the years, is that having a social profile is absolutely critical – provided that you are prepared to invest the time into maintaining it.

And that’s where the wheels sometimes fall off. Often, the client admits that they simply don’t have the time, and asks me to manage their social presence on their behalf, and sometimes all they need is an easy-to-use template and management tool that allows them to spend 5-10 minutes every day, or every other day, on ensuring that their social voice echoes their physical one.

But it’s the times when clients realise they need a social media presence, having it all set up and looking great, but soon realise, despite their best endeavours at keeping things updated, that they simply don’t have the time to manage their social media voice – as they are simply focussing their efforts on building their business and delivering the services that clients are after.

Social Media is not just your loudhailer – it’s a core business tool that enables you to reach an audience that you otherwise wouldn’t, and opens up opportunities that you otherwise may have missed. But if you aren’t prepared to put in the work, those opportunities will forever remain hidden to you.

So, instead of having the “couldn’t-be-bothered” profile, rather consider removing a social presence, until you have a plan in place that allows you (or your team) to regularly update your social media profiles – and truly uncover the benefits of an active social business voice.

And if you don’t have the time, then chat to us about how we manage this for our existing clients – and perhaps we can find an easy compromise that gets you what you need, without looking like a balloon that has lost all it’s pop.

 

Direct and Indirect social communication – and why you need to take notice

What you say says a lot about you (obvs). What you don’t say, also says a lot about you. But how you behave is a foghorn in the mist that truly broadcasts exactly what it would be like to work with you.

Recently, the topic of indirect communication has come up in several conversations I’ve had with fellow business owners, and clients.

Here’s the deal.

Social Media: It’s a thing that allows us to promote ourselves to whoever will follow, building an audience for our services, giving us a bigger platform to broadcast from and share our news, right?  Well, sort of.

What many of us tend to forget is the indirect side of Social Media (and for the sake of this blog, I’ll include what we put on our website too).

What you don’t say on social media speaks louder for you than you probably care to realise.

Here’s an example (and I do love a great anecdotal example).

I have a friend who lived in the US, and who, together with his wife and children, tragically passed away in 2016. At the time, I sent my condolences to the extended family members – none of whom I actually knew. Not expecting a response, I nonetheless received a friendship request from the wife’s mom. Happily, I accepted, but that was the end of our correspondence. We’ve never really spoken. Fast forward to a year later, and out of the blue, I receive a message from her this past week (again, we have never met, and never actually spoken), which reads (and I paraphrase), “Just a quick note to tell you how much I enjoy you! You are such a bright light in this crazy world. Thanks again for making me smile”.

And then it hit me.

How I have behaved indirectly, has created an impression (thankfully a good one!) of what I am like, as a person, while at the same time, actually having forgotten that I had given access to my profile, I had been acting completely naturally, without agenda or fear, and without much pre-meditated thought.  She had built up an understanding of who I am as an individual, what I would be like to know and to such a degree that she has invited me to visit them when next I am in the US.

Turning towards the business communication where social interactivity is a much more planned, thought-out, pre-meditated activity which aims to show branded messaging, company vision, but at the same time practiced spontaneity to appear human, likeable and someone easy to do business with.  But how easy do we really make it for our customers to get a handle on who we are?  Do you give your customer enough information that allows them to interpret indirect communication into an impression that will leave them wanting to do business with you?

Here are a few ways that you can do that:

  • Membership of Groups
  • Customer testimonials / references
  • Articles you follow / like / share / comment on
  • Individuals you communicate with (or don’t communicate with).
  • Causes you believe in and support
  • Language you use in your posts (confrontational, friendly, jargon-based, indifferent)

All of the above are elements of your social profile that speaks for you, and represents what you stand for. All of these are things that allow your customer a little bit of insight into who you are as an organisation – without you broadcasting it yourself.

Think about your own LinkedIn profile for a second (if you have one).

Example A: The profile which tells the reader all about what you’ve done and why they need to pay attention to you. You’re probably telling us that you have done several amazing things, and succeeded at many impressives tasks.  Great.

Example B: The profile which does the above, but also demonstrates ex-colleague / client testimonials which echo your Amazingness, groups that you belong to that echo the services you provide, a profile picture that is befitting of the audience you’re trying to capture, volunteer activities or causes that you’re passionate about (which may note have anything to do with the services you provide).

Which profile would result in a higher level of confidence in the person in question? The one where the individual is doing all the talking, or the one where the things s/he does, belongs to, believes in, echoes what they’re telling you about themselves?

If you’re not standing out – there’s a reason why. You need to allow your customer the opportunity to develop their impression of you – and hopefully, it will be a good one. If not – then we need to talk.

 

What your online profile isn’t telling people

It would appear that the New Year has really meant A New You – and not in the diet-mad-gym-crazy-approach that falls subsequent to New Year festivities, fireworks and too much champagne, but rather, the increased demand for an online profile review and development into whatever 2017 holds.

Fresh Brew Marketing has been honoured to have been asked by several individuals to work with them on their personal online footprint and profile – and in particular, to review how they, as individuals, can be more effective as a brand representative.

This got me thinking.

Why the sudden demand for a better, all-improved profile?

We live in a largely social world. And I’m not referring to having a few friends over for coffee every now and then, but the Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat worlds that occupy every second of every blimp of downtime. And we know that no longer are social trends and fads here, that they’re already yesterday’s news.  And with a world that has become instant and on-demand, so has the need to keep yourself constantly updated and relevant to the news happening around us.

We’ve all been there. Set up a profile years ago, on some website that we thought looked interesting, but failed to captivate us beyond our first login attempt. And for a large number of people that I’ve had the opportunity to work with, what they captured in their original profile creation, still stands today.

Yes, you may have added in another job prospect, or shared an article here and there on your LinkedIn profile, but when was the last time that you created a custom URL for your profile, created a Pulse article, shared a video of something you’re passionate about, reviewed the groups that you’re a member of? Probably never, right?

Can you actually remember which groups you belong to?

Your profile speaks for you long before you’ve uttered your first word. What people read about you gives them an idea of what it would be like to work with you or for you. They get a feel for the type of person you are, what you believe in, whether you’d be worth their investment of time.  So, set aside the bits and pieces that you’ve written about yourself – and think about the indirect stuff. I’m talking about the groups that are displayed on your profile. The causes you support. The influencers you follow. Your indirect activity by belonging to these groups, causes and influencers, also tells your audience more about you.  So, if you can’t remember what groups you actually belong to – then you probably have no idea what indirect message your profile is sending out.

If that’s the case, it’s time for a profile re-fresh.

If you’re looking for someone to help you through that, and interpret the way you portray yourself online, then give me a call, today.

 

It’s time to get real. Here’s why your social profile is rubbish.

You know how we’re always going on about being able to determine the validity of social profiles and voice, etc etc etc?

Well – today, we thought we’d let you figure this one out on your own.

We had the joy of interacting with a fellow-Twitter person today.

Here’s what we noticed….

 

Screen Shot 2016-08-01 at 11.35.06

 

Do you see what we see?

 

 

Hint: 

Check out the ratio of Tweets to Followers. Now – picture yourself at a cocktail party with this person. Either they’re about to chew your ears off with their verbal diarrhea, OR, they’ bought their stats.

You decide.

Either way – we’re 100% certain this profile aint getting the response they’re after.

That’s where we can help. Are you looking for real responses and engagement? Why not chat to us about your social strategy. And get there, the good, old-fashioned way – with hard work, interesting conversation and most of all – reasons to make people listen to you.