Core values are a set of standards for your business that everyone involved in your business must use in order to deliver the best possible product or service.
Core values force you to raise the bar and set the standard, the tone, and the cadence of your business. Make sure you are doing what you can to set the right standards for your business to get the outcome you are looking for.
This video will help you establish core values for your business.
[This guide was originally published by Simple Measured]
Like the feeling of pulling your “ugly but hilarious” holiday sweater from storage, the arrival of our 2018 Social Planning Guide signals a new year is on its way. Planning next year’s social strategy across teams can feel daunting, but our guide and editable worksheets will have everyone working together.
The Simply Measured planning guide helps you to:
Scratching your head about whether to ‘boost’ a post on Facebook or to utilize the power of Facebook ads? Boosting a post is sometimes ‘simple’ but not always the best answer to get to the folks that really matter to your brand! Remember, Facebook is not a spray and pray proposition. Getting into the newsfeeds is getting harder and harder for ranking capability. Soooo…get ready to dig into your pocketbook, whether boosting or using Facebook ads.
Boosting a post on Facebook, let’s face it, is easy-peasy, as opposed to going behind the scenes and utilizing the awesome tools on Facebook Manager. All you have to do is hit the ‘boost post’ button and off you go, right? WRONG. Hang on ‘pardner…
In the past, boosting did not have many of the attributes that Facebook Ads Manager had, but now the Boost post button might not be such a bad strategy after all. You can now actually re-target and optimize your boosts to actually drive traffic for developing your brand followers!
There are some key factors that come into play when boosting your posts. You must consider:
So why is Facebook Manager a greater preference for ads? Let’s be frank, candid and honest…Facebook Ads Manager does have a learning curve…no doubt…but it does have the ability for in-depth targeting, which is a HUGE coup! AND AND AND…if you are an organizational freak, the only way to keep completely organized with your ad spend is to create campaigns within Facebook Ads Manager. You don’t have that ability with boosting posts.
For example, if you want to stay organized on Ads Manager for ‘campaigns,’ you can organize your campaigns strategically:
If you are merely ‘boosting’ a post, you do not have the ability to categorize your ‘boosted posts’ into strategic campaigns on Facebook to examine analytics per campaign goals.
So, to wrap it up quick and easy…boosted posts will help you develop a fan base and reach, and ads can actually help you transition your brand’s presence into tangible brand outcomes!
Stay tuned for more info…lots to share!
How can you get the most out of Twitter for your business? We get that question A LOT! Twitter can be confusing and some may be stumped on how to use Twitter. When getting started with Twitter, it’s best to take baby steps and then grow from there. Once you get your feet wet and splash around a little you can’t help but take a swim in the deep end.
When first with Twitter, use it for two things:
Twitter can be extremely valuable for gathering information on a number of topics. To do this effectively you will want to follow these steps:
Twitter is a great way for you to position yourself as an authority on a certain topic, field or industry. The trick is to share “tweet-able” information, share it often and on a consistent basis. A good rule of thumb is to share 21-70 Tweets a week. That is a minimum of 3 Tweets a day or a maximum of 10 Tweets. It seems like a lot, but there are a couple of things to remember:
We are glad you asked! Below is a list of some generic ideas to get you started:
Now that you get the idea of what types of things you should post, it’s time to put a plan into action. An efficient way of releasing multiple Tweets a day is to use a bulk scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer. Visit this blog post to get more information about bulk schedulers.
Happy Tweeting!
You know the old adage “A picture’s worth a thousand words”, well, that holds true on social media too! The best image with the wrong dimensions can completely derail your plan for the perfect post and kill your quest to go viral.
Header/Banner Image:
This is the image that runs across the top of your Twitter profile.
For best results aim for an image that is:
Profile Picture:
Your profile picture is the square image that sits on the left, bottom side of your header photo.
For best results aim for an image that is:
In-Stream/Newsfeed Image:
This is the image that accompanies your “tweet”.
For best results aim for an image that is:
Happy tweeting!
HootSuite is a social media communications dashboard used for online brand management. It publishes to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and WordPress. It also publishes to Flickr, Tumblr, and YouTube via HootSuite Apps. It is also a Twitter client. We LOVE Hootsuite mostly because of the Twitter management, it keeps everything super organized and easy to manage.
Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes in 2008.[6] The system’s user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and much more.[7]
Buffer is an easy way to share content to your Social Media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and will send you a notification for Instagram. Buffer is a strong tool to utilize in your social media marketing strategy.
What it does is simple. Posts in your queue will be sent out automatically by Buffer, according to the posting schedule that you put in place. You can create a custom schedule if you would like, you can upload manually like we do and choose the days and times you would like your posts to go out to certain platforms.
All you need to do is select the social media platform you’d like to customize the posting schedule for, select the Settings tab at the top, and then select Posting Schedule. From here, you can choose which timezone is best for this account and customize the days and times your posts should go out. Select the days you’d like to include and add the individual times you’d like your content to be shared.
It’s like your magic box you can use anytime to fill with great Tweets, Facebook stories or LinkedIn updates. Just drop them in and you don’t have to ever worry about when it will be posted, it’s all taken care of by Buffer for you. Buffer is FREE up to 3 social media platforms and then VERY affordable after that.
A personal brand is a feeling, an emotion and an expectation about who you are as a person and and a professional. Your personal brand tells people what your character is and what they can expect to experience when working with you.
Our 3-Step process will help you identify what your personal brand looks like. Once you identify what your personal brand is, it will be your job to nurture, grow and tweak it along the way.
STEP 1: WHO YOU ARE
Identify 3-6 core values that describe you. Core values are those things that drive you and make you who your are. They can be anything from trustworthy, respectful, innovative, leader, etc.
Power Tip:
Need help? Use Google to do some research! Type “List of core values” into the Google search engine and see what comes up. Select core values that really describe who you are and how you want people to perceive you.
Write out a descriptive statement of what problem you are able to provide a solution to.
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The point of this descriptive is to illustrate how you think and want people to perceive you.
Strong personal brands deliver value ALL THE TIME! With everything they do, there is always a piece of value available. Two value-focused brands that quickly come to mind are:
Facebook: Provides people the opportunity to connect with friends, family, and businesses everyday!
Google: Delivers information instantaneously! It costs you nothing to do research from the comfort of your own home!
Make a list of all of the pieces of value you offer to your target market:
Now that you have a clear picture of:
You begin to see what your brand looks like. From here, you can go anywhere! With every piece of marketing you do, the product you deliver or conversation you have, you can design it all to reflect how you want people to perceive you, your business, and the product or service you deliver.
Put your brand to the test. Work with a trusted colleague, mentor, or friend, someone who will give feedback, and tell you what you NEED to hear, not what you WANT to hear. Ask them how they honestly see your brand and the product you deliver. If they are unable to identify the problem you solve, how valuable your product or service is or if they are unable to identify any of the 6 core values you listed above to describe you and your business, you have some work to do. You must either change one or all of the steps above or you must change yourself.
Personal branding is a marathon, not a sprint, and, it is definitely a journey. You will need to constantly work at it and improve it each and every day.
Many times people use the terms personal brand and personal image interchangeably but, they shouldn’t. There is a BIG difference between the two! Once you understand the difference between them, it will make a difference in your business.
Everyone has one! It what helps people form a mental picture of you. Here are some characteristics of a Personal Image:
A personal brand is how people perceive you and it sets the expectation of how you will conduct business with another professional. Your personal brand:
Think of your personal brand as your professional reputation on steroids. Your personal brand is the emotion, thought and an idea that is conjured up each and every time your name and business name are mentioned in your target market. What do you want that thought or idea to be for you and your business?
Now that you know how important your personal brand is, you must protect it at all costs by delivering a consistent message each and every time you interact with your target market whether it be on social media, through a marketing program, during a meeting, consultation or a deliverable product.
Today we are going to talk about Instagram! What posts get the BEST engagement??? Instagram is one of the fastest growing networks out there and a place where people LOVE to engage! A lot of our clients see more interaction on Instagram than Facebook or Twitter. I wanted to share our Top 5 posts and how to do them. Enjoy!
Bring your audience behind the scenes of what you do! You can post fun or funny pictures, short videos or even better Instagram stories!
Instagram Stories can give your followers and customers more insight into who you are as a person and as a business. Go live at an event you are at or attending!
Have a palette of different content to share. Create custom images using Canva, Create fun short videos with Ripl, try out different story ideas, since stories only stay on Instagram for 24 hours you can get a good idea of what really gets engagement.
It’s time to bring out the family pictures and your personality! People love when you talk about your interest. Be authentic, be able to capture who you are and what your core values are. Think of the WHY, why you are selling these products, offering this service, running your own business, what’s your story behind YOU??? Then get out there are ask your customers and clients for video testimonials, maybe what’s their WHY, why do they love you, why do they love your products, WHO are they as a person? Get creative and have fun!
Remember your customers want to feel valued, they want to feel loved, so incorporate them into your planning. Ask them questions like “Do you like this color or this color?” “Would you prefer to have this one or this one?” Create polls that they can comment on, ask them to submit ideas or suggestions. People LOVE to be apart of something and LOVE to give their opinion. Then you can @mention them and thank them for their input!
Utilize Pinterest boards for ideas, create a holiday board, quotes board, etc. You can also create a Google Drive folder or Dropbox folder to start stashing away pictures. These pictures can be from Pixabay, Pexels or even your own photos (which are the best), Once you have your images made you can keep your Instagram posts organized with Trello. Trello is an FREE tool that you can create streams or cards of your Instagram posts, then you can copy the text straight from there and post to Instagram!
Remember:
If you need help with your Instagram Marketing Strategy, we are here to help!
Do you know if writing your blogs and sharing them is actually leading to more traffic? Is it helping you reach your business goals?
Maybe not yet, but I wanted to share some help reports through Google Analytics that will help you to see the benefit of the blogs you are writing. We use Google Analytics on nearly all of our client websites because it is free, it is user friendly, and even though some of the data is hidden, it allows us to make clear, actionable changes based on how users are interacting with a website.
BIMS Presentation – Introduction to Google AnalyticsHere take a look at the Location, Technology, and Mobile reports which will tell you:
Each of these reports can be altered to provide more detail, but these will provide a good start to understanding how visitors get to and interact with your website and blog.