There are a few unexpected applications I’ve found in online marketing and social media. In this article, I will discuss two. One is the highlight feature on Instagram and the way we can use Twitter to build our brand.
I’m amazed at Instagram and how it’s used by many people who want to grow their brand. I noticed this when I was at the latest work conference. Everyone was asking for my ‘handle’. This prompted me to look at my Instagram account. I needed to make sure it was up to date. One thing I learned is that you should use your ‘full name’ as your handle so people can find you! I was also surprised to hear about what you should use Instagram ‘highlights’ for. Most don’t use that feature at all. It’s a great area to add your website, your bio video, etc. Pretty much everything about YOU and your business. I can learn so much more about how to maximize the features on Instagram.
The next unexpected application I found in online marketing is Twitter. I was surprised at how effective it is in marketing your brand. For the longest time I thought it was used only for ‘news’. I discovered that you can use this application like Facebook. You can add photo’s videos and written content. One feature that was surprising is that they increased the limit of characters from 140 to 280. This allows for more written content. This allows for more space to tell your story.
In the end, we will see more features added to our social media platforms. These features will let us to be more creative with marketing our brand. It will permit for more interactions and discussions that will help build brand awareness and loyalty.
Resources:
Forbes (Feb 2023) Twitter Boosts Character Limit To 4,000 For Twitter Blue Subscribers
There are many event sites you can use to grow your professional development. You can gain different perspectives from top industry leaders. Find out what the latest trends and tips are. Recently I registered and attended an event through eventbrite. They offer free online events featuring top coaches from different industries. It’s easy to search for upcoming webinar topics by using the search button on the top right side of the screen:
I recently registered for an event on April 6th, 2023. It was entitled: Roadmap to Social Media Success. It was hosted by: Maggie Carey of Master it Media. You can find out all about Maggie Carey by clicking the link below in the resources. I chose this event for two reasons:
To learn a different perspective on the ways to create a social media strategy
Acquire different tips I could take and apply in my own strategy
During the webinar, Maggie went through the basics on how to create a social media strategy. She started out by saying that we need to look at who our audience is. Then how to create a social media strategy. She explained the different social media platforms. And which ones to use based on our audience. I like how she brought up the most recent trends on social media. Maggie offered tips on how often to post on social media and what type of content to post. Some ideas included: FAQ’s, inspirational quotes, industry news, trending topics and products that offer solutions. To create engagement, she said to listen to your audience questions, and create a post.
Maggie said to check our analytics at least once a week! We need to see who our audience is and who’s engaging with us. We can check posts that created the most engagement. Reach out to those who like your posts. Ask them questions to start conversations!
Tip: Business Facebook account: go to business.facebook.com for analytics pro tips.
Maggie’s presentation was easy to follow. She spoke for 40 minutes. Then opened the floor up to Q&A. This gave me a chance to ask my question! “How do I engage my audience on our business Facebook private group page?” She offered some great ideas including how to provide value to my audience. She said that my audience has already taken the next step by joining the group. It’s an opportunity for me to build a strong community in a private safe space. Facebook is great for this. She said that it’s important for me to engage as ‘myself’ in the group.
“People want to see a human being.”
Maggie Carey
As I am currently creating a social media plan for my business, I found this event very valuable. I intend to attend more events like this one. In fact, I’ve already registered for the next one! It’s entitled: ‘How to Attract Clients with Optimized Social Media Profiles.’ These webinars will help me:
Gain different perspectives on how to grow my business
Learn from the top coaches in their field and for free!
It’s so vital to have a strategy for developing your professional network online and in person. This will allow you to build connections with people in your industry. It will open up opportunities for you and your business. Here’s how you do it in 6 steps.
Start with creating a social media strategy that will target your audience. Check out the resource links below for tips on how to get started. Be sure that you do your research first. You should get to know who your audience is and where to find them. Align your strategy with your business goals.
Social Media Networks
The next step is to choose the right social media networks. At this point you should know where to find your target audience. Where do they spend the majority of their time? If it’s Facebook and Instagram, then you want to start there. In my case, I use Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube for the business I work in.
Social media content calendar
The next important step is to create your social media content calendar. Make sure to add in what you will post per day, including any images or videos. Make your posts engaging, entertaining and informative. Provide value to your target audience.
Create digital content
I use Canva for my digital content creation. You can easily create Facebook or Instagram posts with the templates that they provide. There is also an option to create Youtube banners for your channel. Check out the link below and open a new account if you don’t have one. There is a free version and a paid one. Find the right one that fits your business needs.
Create online events
Create online events to engage your audience and build community. Find out who is who in your industry. Find them online. Reach out to introduce yourself. Remember, you are not selling anything to them at this stage. Let them know you are reaching and would like to connect with them on that platform. Once you build your network connections, you can then start showcasing your products. This is after they have started to get to know you and what your company stands for. Once trust is established, it’s an easier transition to brand conversion. Attend online and in person events related to your industry to gain knowledge and to find out what the trends are. It will give you an advantage to know who your competition is.
Moving forward it’s important to monitor trends in the industry by reading news articles and blogs you subscribe to. The goal is to attend in person at least 2 major industry events a year. Network with industry leaders to gain insight and exposure. This will build your network of people that will grow your business and make it successful. It’s also key to continue researching new trends in your industry.
In the end you’ll grow your business by first creating a social media strategy. Know who your audience is and target your content to them. Build community on your social media platforms. Gain knowledge by connecting with those within your industry. If you follow these steps, you will be on the way to creating a successful business.
In social media today, some companies stand out more than others. Let’s take a look at those who have an impressive social media strategy and those who need improvement.
Companies today struggle with creating social media strategies that succeed. But for those who are doing it right, the benefits are amazing. Let’s take a look at three companies and find out who is doing it right and who isn’t.
Let’s start with Uber. When they were strategizing they spotted who their target audience was. They chose young adults who most likely would use ride sharing services. (between 18-29 years old). What was their goal? According to a 2016 case study, “Uber’s goal is to continually expand globally and bring its services to different cities to allow riders and drivers to connect.” What was their strategy? They wanted to attract customers with cost awareness perks. They used Facebook and Twitter to engage with their customers and increase ridership. They stayed true to their objective; to expand and bring its services to different cities. I’m always amazed at Uber’s forward-thinking ideas to keep their audience engaged.
Next I want to turn to Dove as an example of standing out from the crowd. Have you noticed any of their commercials in the last few years? According to Case Studies, Dove’s target audience was all women ages 18-35.” The 2013 “Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches Campaign” brought in 66.7 million views on YouTube with 3.7 million shares. Their videos promote all body types as beautiful. This has allowed them to touch viewers emotionally, making them feel connected. They recognized their target audience, created a strategy and chose the right Social Media platforms. Way to go Dove!
Finally, let’s take a look at Walmart. According to an article from blog.notesmatic, “Walmart uses multimedia content including videos and images to drive higher engagement and instead of just promoting products or deals also promotes the other aspects of the brands including work culture and CSR.” Walmart’s strategy was to respond to customer feedback. They used Facebook as their main social media platform. Although they have been successful with their strategy, they missed the ball with their delivery services. Since Walmart started outsourcing their delivery services, consumers let them know that they were not happy. They did this by posting negative feedback on social media channels. Remember that Walmart’s slogan is “Save Money. Live Better.’‘ In this instance, they are not offering consumers what they promised. Walmart would do well to acknowledge this issue and rethink their delivery strategies.
What can we learn from this? The benefits are endless when social media strategies are created. It allows businesses to engage with their customers and build brand awareness and loyalty. The question then lies…is your business standing out from the crowd?
What Social Media marketing strategies have worked for your business?
What Social Media marketing strategies would you suggest for smaller businesses?
Resources
Dojo Creative, November 11, 2019, Digital Marketing Examples From McDonalds, Uber an Airbnb, https://bit.ly/3M5aKfh
In social media, it’s important to listen to what your audience is saying. Even more important is using the right sources of news to keep you in the loop of the industry you’re in. Here are my favorite listening and sources of news I use.
On my list of favorite social media listening/monitoring tools is Hootsuite. I love it because you can monitor all your social media channels at once.
A great Hootsuite feature is that it allows you to schedule and view your posts on your channels at the same time. Other features include, adding shortened links to your posts. You can do this right in the application instead of having to go to Bitly. You can also choose from a large selection of photos or videos from the media library. My favorite feature is that it allows you to respond to questions and like and comment on posts!
Facebook Insights/ LinkedIn analytics
Every social media platform has an analytics tool built right in. Although it can be tedious to check each platform, you can get some good analytics. I like to use Facebook Insights. This allows me to see various types of analytics such as:
Growth:
How many members and member requests, denied
Engagement
Popular days/times
Posts with the most activity
Tip: Check out what day and time most people are most engaged and post accordingly.
LinkedIn analytics allows me to see both growth and engagement.
Growth:
Growth highlights
Growth details
Member demographics
Engagement:
Engagement highlights and details
Most engaging group posts
Best sources of news and updates
I use three types of sources for news and updates. One is subscribing to different news sources and magazines. This allows me to get the news delivered straight to my email inbox.
The second source is Feedly. Although you need to pay to follow feeds, you can use the free version. You can search for competitors and trends through Feedly AI feeds.
The third favorite is Google Trends. You can find the following:
Interest over time
Interest by subregion
Related topics/Key words and inquiries
Whatever medium you use to listen in, it’s important to find out what matters to your audience. Using different sources of news to keep you in the loop will give you an advance on the competition.
What are your favorite listening tools?
What sources of news and updates are finding works well?
Let’s talk about why storytelling is important to creating great digital content. How will your content be guided by the story? And finally, what kind of stories do you want to tell?
Stories are important when creating digital content. People want to relate to you and stories are the best way to showcase yourself. They capture people’s attention. Why is that? Because stories have been around for thousands of years. This how we connect with each other. It’s something that bonds us as human beings. Creating the right story will be remembered forever and for generations to come.
Create content guided by the story
Creating vivid content that captures a person’s attention is key. As we enter into an age where the attention span is only 8.5 seconds, we need to keep our stories short and to the point. Being authentic is vital as people want to see ‘real’ instead of fake content. This helps them to ‘relate’ when it’s authentic.
The stories we want to tell
The kind of stories we want to tell should be relevant to our life and or our business. Do we use specific tools that help us in our daily lives? Telling the story of how these tools intertwine into our day-to-day helps tell a story. Remember, we want our audience to ‘relate’ to us or we want to create an ‘emotional’ response. Sometimes the stories we think are not important may resonate with someone else. What will our story inspire the audience to do?
Storytelling is important when creating great digital content because it brings us together. Using vivid content will guide our storytelling. And finally, telling the right kind of stories that people can relate to will bring our audience to us.
Every day you wake up, you may ask yourself: “How will I get through another day of work?” Does the thought of work give you a headache? Well, that was me. I dreaded each day I had to get up, shower, and get ready for work only to hit the road and get stuck in traffic. Where was my life headed? Was I to be the woman who never achieved her dreams? I knew I had to make a change but didn’t know how. Then the unexpected happened. The world was introduced to COVID.
Let’s say it was a good and bad thing when I got furloughed and eventually laid off. I was with the company for 13 years. Did they not appreciate all the time, sweat, and tears I had put in? I realized at that point that I was a number in the corporate world. I shed one tear and then decided to move on with my life. The old me was gone and the new me was about to emerge.
I was confined to the ‘rules’ of what I call the ‘daily life of sales’. It was cutthroat and my only goal was to bring in revenue for the company. Now I was free to be creative. I knew I loved to write and this was my chance to start.
I decided to start with painting. I went to the dollar store and purchased acrylic paint and canvases. I needed to end my frustration by using vivid colors in my art. My partner at the time thought I had lost my mind. But it worked. I felt free and I was able to unlock my creative side.
Next, I decided to start writing blogs. I had so much information in my head that needed to come out. I needed to connect with people who were going through the same thing as me. So I started by writing my first blog: “Changing Industries…Fear of The Unknown”.
I knew people could relate because millions had lost their jobs. I knew they were all feeling like I was. Or were they? Were they sad to have lost their jobs and not sure how to move into a new industry? Yes, I was scared too. But my newfound freedom had clouded the fact that I was unemployed and had to find a new job.
What I found though was that I was able to unlock what was hiding inside of me for years. Now I work for a company where I am able to use my newfound skills. I could combine my old skills with new ones to create a superwoman. Yes, that’s right, I had been in sales and customer-facing roles and now I had the ability to connect with them in my own way by using my words.
There is a lesson here. Never underestimate the power we have inside of us. It’s there and waiting to come out. Let it shine and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
My approach to life is simple. Work hard and have fun while you’re doing it!
As a career-focused person, I was able to grow and achieve success over the last 25 years. In doing so, I’ve built strong bonds with my colleagues who some I call friends. My leadership skills are motivational and effective. I’ve been told that I have a warm personality and a ‘natural ability to build strong relationships and make people feel comfortable.’ I’m proud to say that this is the way I am both in work and life!
My expert field covers sales and customer service. During my career, I’ve been able to build effective strategies. This in turn resulted in increased productivity and sales of the company. I have the ability to adapt to different sceneries which makes me a force to be reckoned with! Of course, I am always glad to share new ways and tricks with my colleagues to help them succeed.
My true strength is handling objections and turning them into success stories. My creative side allows me to look at different approaches in any situation. I always plan ahead and take initiative to ensure success.
Lately, I’ve focused on ‘looking at the big picture’ when tackling complex projects. I use a ‘creative’ approach which enables me to bring new ideas to the table. Who knows you best than your colleges and friends? Here are some testimonials I’d like to share!
Testimonials
“She is dependable and always eager to help when needed for a task or just an ear. She acts as a mentor to many and a true example of a great leader!
Marie
“She has a positive outlook on challenging situations and provide constructive criticism to ensure the problem is solved effectively.”
Candy
“Once Patty moved to a senior position, she counseled other team members and shared her expertise with humour, compassion and solid expertise in a customer-focused selling style.”
Leah
“She always had time for me when I needed any help. Not only is she patient and informative, she always has a smile on her face and has a fun approach to tackle any problems.”
Tiffany
“Patty showed strong performance in her role as Sales Manager, and succeeded not only in topping the Team in several key statistics categories on numerous occasions but also in creating many strong and profitable client relationships with customers who were very loyal to her.”
Anita
In the end, I am most proud of what I’ve achieved throughout my career and look forward to more success. I’ve always had a love for writing and art. I am blessed that my job allows me to do these things. What I cherish the most is my circle of support, including my family and friends. My personal blog on Medium describes me best: “I am Patty Cado, here to inspire you to believe in yourself. Do not let life make decisions for you. You make decisions for your life. You will be thankful you did!”
I was surprised to see that Nike has been able to reach all audiences around the world. This is quite an accomplishment! How did they do it? According an article from Keyhole: “They don’t force you to do anything — they just show you their extraordinary product potential via social media and their other marketing initiatives.”
Let’s first identify the main social media platforms Nike is using:
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook
Content
Nike uses different types of content to keep their audience engaged. I love how they incorporate video to tell stories. Nike uses a variety of stunning graphics as well. Variety is key to keeping consumers engaged!
Engaging the audience
Keyhole continues to describe the different methods Nike uses to engage with their audience: “The brand often encourages its followers to share their own stories and experiences, using hashtags (such as #nikefc, #nikewomen, and #justdoit) and other tactics to spark conversations and create a sense of community.”
Viral trends/Social Listening
Nike follows viral trends and then includes them in their social media. This is a great idea because they focus on what people are talking about and what’s important to them. They also make sure to respond to their consumers on social media. This builds trust for the consumer.
Keeping Audiences up to date
Nike excels in the area of keeping their audience up to date on new products. This is brilliant because they build excitement! What’s even more exciting is they showcase real-life athletes using these new products.
Partnering
Nike’s Facebook page advertises its collaboration with top athletes and actors. What better way to tap into a larger audience? These top athletes and actors such as Kevin Hart have a huge following!
Promote inclusivity
Nike is inclusive and creates communities by allowing people to have a voice. They also bring attention to the real issues happening in the world. I was very moved by one of their ads called: “For once don’t do it.” which centered around the problem of racism in America. It currently has 1.4M views on YouTube.
What have we learned from Nike? They use various types of content on social media to reach their audience. They ‘listen’ to the chatter and then provide their consumer with what they want. Keeping consumers up to date with new products builds excitement. Partnering with top athletes and actors allows them to access a larger audience. And finally, being ‘inclusive’ shows they care about all people.
What social media strategies have increased engagement with your audience?
Resources:
Keyhole, (December 22, 2022) Nike’s Social Media Strategy: A Deep Dive
As a woman over 50, I’ve joined the ranks of many who are learning new makeup techniques for aging skin. As we age, we find that our old make-up routine doesn’t cut it anymore. Women over 50 are now looking for new products and techniques to make them look ageless. Here I will find out who these women are and where to find them. This will help me on my journey to finding out the most effective way to reach them. First things first, finding out what my target audience’s demographic and Psychographic profile is. Let’s take a peek at my findings!
Demographic profile
Psychographic Profile
Gender: Women
Lifestyle: Women who are trendy, like to travel, are time crunched (aging parents, grandparents) more likely to eat healthier, work out, focus on stress management
Education Level: $60K – $150K
Disposable income :Middle to upper class.
Family Type: Single/Married/Divorced/Grandmother
Leaders or followers? Followers.
Ethnic background: Women of all ethnic backgrounds
What do these people like to do in their spare time? Friends and family, gardening, cooking, interior design, decorating, reading.
Women love to hear from other women to whom they can relate to. I know because I’m one of them! In my campaign, I want to invite influencers who are over the age of 50.
Check out this video with Brooke Shields that caught my eye while doing a Twitter search: https://bit.ly/408FErw. I watched the entire video because I could relate to her. She’s around the same age as me and a beloved actress!
Join the conversation
When targeting influencers, it’s important I join in on the conversation. I’ve started following them on Instagram and Facebook. I always make sure to like, and comment! I will make an effort to keep in the loop for upcoming events they will be a part of. And of course I’ll use my savvy networking skills to build relationships!
Building trust is vital. So I will make sure not to come across as pushy. I’d let them know I’m there and a part of the conversation.
Community
What’s more important than supporting your community? My idea is to create a campaign that focuses on supporting local women’s shelters. This is important to all women and to me. My goal is to show that we care about women who are struggling and need support. All women deserve love and respect and want to feel beautiful. I would keep the public up to date on the donation contributions. I’d include women of all backgrounds to join me in my campaign.
Inclusion
As someone who is a part of a diverse family, it’s important to my campaign that I include products that are for all skin types and shades! This will broaden my audience but also show that I am inclusive.
Surveys
Finding out what women over 50 want when it comes to makeup is vital. There is no better way than to ‘ask’ them! Once I’ve established a good number of followers, I’d send out a survey. This will give me good insights into what’s important to my target audience.
Tutorials
If you are a YouTube fan like me, you would have already discovered hundreds of make-up tutorial videos. Check this one out from one of my favorite influencers, Dominique Sachse who has 1.81M subscribers: https://bit.ly/3DmVtkM.
This gives me an idea of where to find my target audience. As I already have my own YouTube channel and love to create videos, this is where I’ll make sure to spend time.
Google Keywords
When searching for keywords, the best place is Google Trends! Here are some keywords I found: foundation, skin, beauty, eye, women, face, and cosmetics being the top keywords. Google trends will also help me find where my target audience is and what new trends are out there.
Ok, so that was a lot of information! What did we learn? It’s taught us who our target audience is, what they are talking about and where to find them. Do your homework ahead of time! This will ensure you succeed in your social media campaign journey.
What other tools have you found that work when researching your target audience?
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 