The importance of consistency on Social Media
The most successful brands on social media make sure their brands are consistent and professional at all times. This week we’re chatting to our Digital Marketing Specialist, Sam Gray to get her insight into the importance of consistency on social media.
-
Is it necessary to be active on all social media platforms?
Not necessarily – it’s important to establish your target audience before you start your social media strategy.
If your target audience isn’t on a particular platform, then it’s probably more beneficial to concentrate your energy and resources into a few key platforms instead of trying to master them all.
-
Tell us a few social media faux pas that affect the consistency of a brand’s online presence.
It can be easy to get caught up in regramming photos that people have taken of your product or at your venue. Everyone has their own unique flare and social media persona, so regramming too often can confuse your own theme and social media identity.
Try not to go too crazy with the filters either! Just tweaking your photos by up-ing their brightness and sharpness is all you need to do to prep them to go live on your account.
-
How important is regular posting?
A regular posting schedule is super important to maintain and build engagement rates.
Delving into your stats will help you decipher which days and times are best for you to post so you can establish a consistent posting schedule.
-
Stock images or original content? What is better for consistency?
Creating original content is the best way to maintain consistency across your social feed. If you struggle to consistently develop original content, using stock quote templates is a good way to keep up with your posting schedule, while giving you a break to get your creative juices flowing again!
What elements make for visual consistency across social media?
There’s a few elements you can implement into your social strategy to create a consistent aesthetic. Here’s a few things to consider when establishing your visual identity:
- Colour story and style guide, including key fonts and preferred colours
- Photography style
- Scheduling patterns e.g. posting a quote, flatlay then product image to keep your feed in a strict grid
-
Do you think tone and personality in text play a large role in keeping your socials consistent?
100%! Whether it’s short and snappy, full of colloquial language and slang or product focused – your copy should always stay consistent and true to your brand’s identity.
-
What links are there, if any, between engagement and consistency on social media?
It’s all about consistency! It’s important that your audience is able to identify your content, without seeing your handle! Consistency in copy, content and scheduling should be the main pillars of your social media strategy. If your audience starts to recognise and love your content, engagement will follow!
-
Quantity or quality when it comes to your social media profile?
I would say quality over quantity! If you can only manage to get a few posts up a week, make sure that they’re great posts – look at when your audience is most likely to be online and try to get them out on these days every week to help your engagement rate grow.
Want to chat to a member of our team about your digital strategy? Contact us today.
Should you make your Instagram feed shoppable?
Consumers have shorter attention spans than ever, so discovering a way to streamline the shopping experience from inspiration through to purchase was crucial. Without further ado, it’s time to introduce the shoppable Instagram feed!
Have you seen those posts on Instagram with a little shopping bag logo in the corner? Those posts are what we call ‘shoppable’ posts, meaning if someone taps the image, a product name and price will pop up, allowing the user to purchase the product.
Originally, shopping on Instagram was only available to businesses in the United States, but it has since expanded internationally with businesses in over 44 countries now being able to utilise the feature.
Many big-name brands have made their Instagram feeds shoppable, in order to connect with customers in a fresh, more immersive way. The shopping on Instagram feature encourages customers to follow through with their intended purchase. Many shoppers will abandon the shopping pursuit if it’s too difficult. For example, a customer sees a pair of pants on an Instagram feed and heads to the link in bio to shop it. They’re taken to the main website and have to sort through hundreds of pairs of pants. Unless they’ve fallen head over heels for the pants, they’ll most likely abandon the shop and look elsewhere. Sad face.
So, a shoppable Instagram essentials tries to prevent this from happening by making the shopping experience seamless. By tagging products in posts, you’re allowing consumers to complete the entire buyer journey from discovery to checkout, without ever leaving the Instagram app!Talk about a one stop shop!
If you have quite a large inventory with an extensive range of products, we’d strongly recommend creating a shoppable feed. This way, consumers can simply shop the look they love straight from Instagram rather than having to look through a website.
If you have a smaller stock offering, it’s completely up to you whether you want to adopt a shoppable feed or not. We definitely wouldn’t discourage the idea but go with whatever you feel comfortable with!
Still not sure whether a shoppable feed is a good fit for you and your business? Why not pencil in a chat with our team to discuss your Instagram strategy.
Want help creating the visuals for your Instagram feed? Read more here.
Top tips for successful influencer collaborations - by an Influencer
Unless you’ve been sleeping under a technological rock (assuming one without wifi), you’ve probably heard a little about social media ‘influencers’ and the benefits that follow from collaborating with them to help endorse a particular product or service. This new avenue for content creation and distribution has been a blessing for advertising and marketing businesses, making for a unique, timely and cost effective service available to clients.
This week we're chatting to our Senior Content Creator Alice Honey about the in's and out's of influencer outreach.
As a Senior Content Creator and ‘Micro Influencer’, I find myself on both sides of the equation when it comes to understanding the logistics behind what it takes to facilitate successful influencer collaborations. Here are a few tops tips, consisting of what I consider the most important factors to be considered by an agency or business when embarking into the world of digital collaboration with influencers and online personalities.
Pick the right influencers for your brand:
Whether you’re outsourcing for a client or your own business, it’s extremely important to consider what it is you hope to achieve from your influencer collaboration. Be sure to pick an individual to work with that you feel can meet your expectations. It’s essential to consider the visual style of the influencer and whether your product or service is something their online presence/brand would convincingly align with. Managing yours or your clients expectations by reaching out to well considered individuals sets you up for success.
Make the brief clear:
Once you’ve reached out to an influencer who is willing to work with your particular product or service, write a clear and concise brief that outlines your expectations of the work they produce (if any). This can be short and sweet, or in-depth depending on the size of the project. The more detail you can provide, the easier it will be for an influencer to work with your product and reduces the risk of receiving undesirable content for your brand. Creating a seamless brand-influencer relationship can open up future opportunities between both parties and create a sense of loyalty to your brand or client.
Pay for your collaboration:
I would strongly recommend considering adequate remuneration for an influencer’s time and work, in order to get the most of out the collaboration. By paying an individual for their content creation services, you are able to be more specific as to your requirements/brief outline, and in return will receive more considered and high quality work from your influencer. A reasonable price for influencer services can usually be determined via contacting them or their management directly, however it is important to keep in mind that the more well-known or ‘influential’ they are, the higher their price will likely be.
There are always going to be variables when it comes to collaborating with digital influencers. Taking adequate steps and being professional, yet approachable is without a doubt the best way to make the most of your collaboration and solidify positive brand-consumer relationships.
Want more handy hints on influencer outreach? Read more here.
Watch Alice's top tips on how to get the perfect shot for Instagram here.
The Importance of a Digital Strategy
Being a digital marketing agency, it’s no secret we place great importance on digital strategy and planning. This week we're chatting with our Senior Creative Strategist, Michaela Skilney, who gives some insight into her approach to digital strategy and its significance.
- What challenges do you face when developing a digital strategy?
One of the biggest challenges I face when developing digital strategies for clients is reconciling what’s a reasonable and realistic outcome for a campaign, and what the client expects to achieve. It’s essential to set goals and aspire to reach particular objectives, however social media isn’t an exact science.
More often than not, clients are under the false illusion that an agency can guarantee what content will go viral and how many followers they can attract. The truth is, if an agency can guarantee those types of outcomes, they’ll be employing the likes of automated bots, which are completely at odds with all platform’s T&Cs (and I would be running in the opposite direction!)
What a digital strategy can guarantee is that your social media presence is the greatest reflection of your brand, your offering and what appeals to your audience.
- Does your approach differ client to client?
Every client, regardless of how similar their product, service or audience is, will have a unique set of goals, a unique promotional calendar and to be successful, unique selling points. It’s therefore impossible to adopt a one-size-fits-all-approach from client to client. It may be less efficient on paper this way, to view client’s in isolation, but that’s the difference between what you get with a boutique agency like ours versus a strategy template you can download online!
- In your opinion, is having a digital strategy as significant as a traditional marketing plan?
Regardless of what medium you’re working in – traditional or digital marketing – a strategy is essential to give your efforts a sense of purpose. Without strategic thought and planning prior to the commencement of a campaign, you’re essentially setting yourself up to fail. Without the right preparation, you find you’ll always be in reactive mode and constantly behind the 8-ball!
- When developing a digital strategy, what research is involved?
There’s a ton of research involved when developing a digital strategy, predominantly around target audiences and their digital user habits. Most of the time, clients know their brands intimately and can share the history of their business off the top of their heads. What they mightn’t know, where I come in, is who their current digital audience is, and whether that marries with who they want it to be. The purpose – and outcome – of any digital content, whether that be a social media post, a blog or an EDM (electronic direct mail), is that it will reach someone and be consumed. Research at the digital strategy phase allows for your content to be targeted and seen by those you want to engage.
- Where’s the best place to start when constructing a digital strategy?
In order to create a digital strategy – a plan of attack for a brand that truly speaks to who they are and who they want to be – I need to fully immerse myself in what they do so that the end result feels as though it’s been crafted in-house. This usually begins by meeting with key business stakeholders for a complete brain dump on their part (their offering, their customer, their strengths, their weaknesses, their current digital output, their digital likes and dislikes, their projected sales etc.) as well as understanding what pre-planned promotions, product launches and events are in place for the next 3-6 months. These steps are the foundation on which I build my strategies, so you could say they’re non-negotiable!
- Do you believe every business should have some sort of a digital plan?
Embracing all things digital can be overwhelming for some brands and business owners, but it’s unavoidable. Consumer habits have changed from bricks and mortar stores to online shopping, and information gathering shifting from magazines and catalogues to social media and blogs. If you want your brand to thrive, let alone be relevant, you need to have a digital presence – and what kind of presence you have all depends on a solid digital strategy.
Want to chat to Michaela and our team about putting together a bespoke digital strategy for your brand? Contact us: [email protected] to find out more.
How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
New Year, new you. How many times have you said that to yourself? Every year? Us too! So many of us set unrealistic resolutions each year and end up breaking them. The key to setting reasonable New Year’s resolutions that you won’t break is to make them measurable and achievable. We’ll leave your personal resolutions up to you, but to help you get on track for a more productive year at work, here are some of our top productivity tips!
- Address must-do’s first
Have you ever put of a big project in favour of smaller, less critical ones? We’re all guilty! Although you may get the smaller tasks done faster, you could find yourself running out of time to complete the big project. So, to ensure they get done on time, always work on the more important projects at the start of the day. Your future self with thank you.
- Take breaks
Try to figure out when your productivity begins to drain and take a break. Go for a walk around the block, grab a drink or snack. When you sit back at your desk, you’ll feel more alive and ready to tackle your to-do list. Also, taking time out of each day for a bit of mindfulness will do wonders for your productivity.
- Stop multitasking
It’s a myth, okay. We all think it’s possible but really it’s not. Instead of jumping between multiple tasks at once, commit your focus to one task at a time. You’ll be surprised how much faster you get them all done simply by tackling one project at a time.
- Schedule email time and turn off notifications
These are two infamous concentration breakers. Having a set time to check emails means you aren’t getting distracted throughout the day. Set aside time in the morning and afternoon to read through and respond to emails. As for notifications, turn off the insignificant ones to allow yourself to focus on the job at hand. Nothing is more distracting than a snapchat notification popping up on your phone!
- Know when it’s time to delegate and outsource
Many business owners think they can tackle everything on their own, and this is when they become overloaded and overworked. Learning which projects and tasks can be outsourced and which ones require your input is a skill. By outsourcing jobs to other professionals, you’re freeing up your time to focus on more important jobs.
Here’s to a greater, more productive work year for you and your team!
If you find your workload increasing and think you may need to outsource, whether it be with content creation, branding and strategy, or community management, our team is here to help! Shoot us an email to book a consultation.
How to create an engaging Instagram feed
Is your brand's Instagram account flatlining? It's no secret that Instagram is one of the hardest platforms to manage and grow at the moment, but there are a few things you can do to get your brand back on track.
Let's get back to basics
Upload an eye-catching profile pic
The profile pic real estate is limited, so use it well! Generally a logo, or an abbreviated version of your logo using block colour works well here
Write a catchy bio
A great Instagram bio should:
- Explain a bit about you / your brand and what you do
- Appeal to your target audience
- Showcase your tone of voice and brand personality to give fans a taste of what to expect
Make sure your contact details are correctly listed
Is your account set to business, and have you linked it with your Facebook page for seamless advertising campaigns?
Now that you've got the basics covered, it's time to develop your Instagram style guide.
Pay attention to your colour palette
Some of the most successful Instagram accounts tend to use a select colour palette for their photos, helping them to create a distinct style.
Keep your fonts consistent
Aspirational/quirky quotes and text overlays are all the rage on Instagram. To create a cohesive aesthetic, make sure you keep your fonts are consistent throughout your feed.
Now that you have your basic design guidelines, you can start creating some content. At this point, we suggest thinking about your feed as a whole, rather than working image by image
First impressions count, and when someone is checking your brand out on Instagram, they’ll most likely look at the first three rows of your grid first. Do your images all work well together? In today’s world, your feed is essentially your business card, so we suggest taking some time to make sure it’s the right representation of your brand.
Filters
If you’re using a filter, trying picking one, and sticking with it throughout the feed.
Using Apps to plan your content
What can you use?
There are heaps of programs on the market that you can use to schedule and plan your Instagram posts. Just make sure you aren’t using one which navigates around Instagram’s API.
Here’s a few programs you can use to plan your Instagram posts:
Later (previously Latergram)
- Re-directs posts through their app, at time you’ve scheduled
- Provides a series of tiered plans to choose from depending on the size of your business, and how many posts you plan to schedule
- Allows you to edit photos from inside the app
- Provides a grid view so you can preview your page before you post
- The media library allows you to store as many photos as you need to help make scheduling even easier
Plann
- Aimed at creatives, Plann is all about creating an aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed
- Grid view allows you to add multiple photos at a time and drag and drop them until they’re in the right place
- Add captions and store hashtags that will be copied to your dashboard when its time to post
- A push notification will alert you when it’s ready to go
So you've got a beautiful feed, but how can you make it engaging?
Only post high quality photos
It may seem like a no brainer, but as Instagram is such a visual platform, it’s important to make sure your image is high quality, and not blurry.
Post a variety of shots and content types
Variety creates interest, and interest translates to followers, and followers become customers. So before you post two coffee shots in a row, stop and think about how you can mix things up. And – avoid duplicating your content within your feed!
Create space within your feed
Creating space in your grid is important to helping the eye move freely throughout your feed. We’re not talking about old fashioned borders, but rather mixing up busy images with more minimal posts.
Pay attention to your captions!
Captions can sometimes be an afterthought on Instagram, but we’re here to tell you they’re still important! Keep them short, sharp and include your call to action within the first sentence.
Avoid overly promotional content
While you can still use Instagram to promote your brand and products, keep your sales content subtle, avoiding posting plain product shots or logos. Break up your branded content with aspirational imagery.
Mentioning an influencer or brand in your post? Tag them!
By sharing the love and tagging those influencers, you’re starting a conversation, which hopefully will lead to them supporting you right back!
What are you favourite Instagram tips and tricks? Share them with us @MelbourneSocialCo
10 reasons why businesses need a Social Media Manager
We all know why social media is important for business. But do you think you need a social media manager for your business?
One thing we hear regularly from our clients is that while social media is a must-do and a huge part of their marketing strategy, it's more often than not the last thing on their daily to-do list. And we can understand why, when you're running a business you've got a million things on your mind, without even thinking about social media strategy, target audiences, analytics, content creation, community management - the list goes on. And yep, that all falls under the umbrella of the 'social media manager'.
But while you're ticking off your daily tasks to keep your business running, you may be neglecting the one thing that has the potential to take your business to the next level - social media.
Why is professional social media management important?
Firstly, the person managing your social media accounts is effectively the ‘voice’ of your business. If you wouldn’t put that person in front of 1000 people to promote your business on your behalf, you shouldn’t put them in charge of your social media voice - which potentially reaches a far greater audience on a daily basis.
Secondly, strategy, quality, consistency, engagement and innovation are the keys to social media success. Without these key points, your social media efforts will be in vain. By outsourcing the ongoing management of your social media channels to a dedicated strategist, you can ensure your business is not only utilising social media in a strategic manner designed to produce real results for your brand, but they're producing high quality content and distributing it a consistent, targeted manner, aimed at increasing engagement and reach for your business. (Or in other words, getting you 'seen and heard' online!)
Here are 10 reasons why businesses need a Social Media Manager:
- To develop a social media strategy. Without a great social media strategy in place, your efforts may be in vain. Your social media manager will set out a strategy for you that is geared towards achieving success online.
- To create amazing content. In 2017, your social media manager is no longer just that, (or at least at Melbourne Social Co they're not!) They are photographers, writers, stylists, publicists, community managers - you name it, the list goes on. And as part of our role, we will create and source amazing content for your brand. Because let's face it, in the crowded social media market place, you need amazing content to stand out from the crowd.
- To boost SEO (search engine optimisation): A Social Media Manager understands search engines (or knows someone who does!) and can create content that is optimised for this purpose.
- To communicate in a unified voice: A Social Media Manager will get to know your brand, define your audience and create a unified social media message to appeal to your target market.
- To manage the online community: The Social Media Manager acts as a 'brand ambassador' by listening to your customers on social media and responding in a timely manner. Social Media Managers can also be excellent PR agents, by reaching out to news outlets and bloggers who can help your business grow.
- To save time: Social Media Management takes time. Having people contribute to the process without a defined schedule or strategy won't help your marketing efforts and is often an afterthought. A Social Media Manager is dedicated to managing the digital marketing of your business - it's his/her job.
- To handle social media automation/scheduling: A Social Media Manager knows how to get the most out of social media by using a variety of tools and techniques. These methods can help grow the business and save money in the process. Do you know what is the best time of day to post particular content online? Your Social Media Manager does and can schedule posts accordingly.
- To have someone with business knowledge: Social Media Managers not only know social media, they also understand all facets of your business. They know what's important and which trends to follow because they interact with the various departments. They can confidently act as the 'voice' of your business as they are on top of what's going on.
- To track campaigns: A Social Media Manager can measure and track campaigns to see what works and what doesn't, and then adjust as necessary.
- To stay abreast of trends and technology: People who know the basics of social media may not be as informed as a person who works in social media marketing day in and day out. Just because you post on Instagram daily and love to use Pinterest doesn't necessarily mean you will be able to strategically manage your businesses online profiles.
So, now you know why a Social Media Manager is important, what should you do?
If you're looking to outsource your social media management, we can help.
We'd love to chat to you about your digital marketing needs, so that we can put together a custom full-service solution for you.
Please contact us for more information: [email protected]
How To Stay Motivated As A Business Owner
There’s no denying that being a business owner is hard - if it wasn't, everyone would be doing it! And sometimes, staying motivated can be a challenge, especially when you have to deal with the day-to-day ups and downs of running a business.
However, staying motivated, positive and inspired is a must - both for yourself, your employees and ultimately your business!
Unsure how? We've put together our top tips for staying motivated as a business owner to try now.
Remember why you started:
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day running of your business and the stresses that come with it, and sometimes we forget why we even started our business in the first place! Maybe you started your business because you were really passionate about an idea, a product or a service. Maybe you wanted to help people? Maybe you wanted to be your own boss. Regardless of the reasons, it’s important to take some time to reflect on this drive you had when you started, why you wanted to create your brand and channel that through everything you do!
Set goals:
For those occasions when feel like your business is at a standstill and you're stuck in a rut, it’s a good idea to set some realistic goals and work towards them! Start with something small like improving your brand's social media presence or writing a blog. If you're feeling ambitious, plan towards something larger like opening a new bricks and mortar location or running a big marketing campaign.
Each time you achieve a goal, make sure you stop and reflect on how far you’ve come.
Look after yourself:
Sometimes a weekend away, or a big sleep in can do wonders for your physical and mental health and not to mention how you run your business! By looking after yourself, you give yourself the energy and the resources to do the best job you can.
Make sure you make yourself a priority and schedule in some much needed ‘me’ time, whether that’s to hit the gym, curl up on the couch with your pooch or family, or watch trashy TV (Keeping Up With The Kardashians anyone?!)
Do you need some help setting or achieving some of your business’ goals? We're here to help!
Contact us now for more information on how we can work together to continue to grow your business.
e: [email protected] – P: 1300 386 165
Five Tips For Networking Success
Whether we like it or not, an essential part of our careers is networking, as it’s a vital way to meet new customers/clients, share new ideas, drive word-of-mouth recommendations and perhaps make some great new likeminded friends!
If you’re unsure of how to nail your next networking event or meeting, read on below for our top tips.
Be prepared:
Whether you’re about to walk into a meeting with potential clients or attending an event, make sure you are prepared! Being prepared means thinking of some great conversation starters or questions and determining what your “elevator pitch” is. An elevator pitch is your chance to explain who you are, what you do and what you are passionate about in around 30 seconds. The trick is to practice this pitch so you capture your audience’s attention and entice them to stick around and continue to talk to you.
Other ways to be prepared include planning the right outfit ahead of time, figuring out how to get there, and making sure you get to the meeting or event early so you're not feeling rushed or stressed out when you arrive.
Be friendly and conversational:
Coming across friendly and approachable will go a long way in helping you to meet new people and make great connections. This means being aware of your body language, your tone of voice, the way you speak and make sure it is coming across as approachable and relaxed as possible.
Ask questions:
For those of you who don’t like to talk to much (and for everyone else as well!) make sure you ask questions. Asking questions is a great way to learn more about other people and to become inspired by other’s passions, skills and experience.
Share your passion:
Everyone has a story, but what captures people’s attention is when you share your unique selling point. What is it about you that makes you stand out from the crowd? Usually that will be what you are passionate about, the very thing that makes you tick! Sharing your passions is a great way to win people over with your enthusiasm and make a lasting impression.
Follow-up:
Now that you’ve done a great job at networking, remember to follow up. Ensure that you exchange business cards, or connect via social media so you can continue the conversation and make lasting friendships or business relationships. LinkedIn is a great platform for keeping in touch with likeminded professionals or potential customers/clients so don’t be afraid to add your new connections. As a general rule, it’s best to follow up within 2 days of meeting the person so that you're fresh in their minds.
Do you need help getting your personal brand or business out there? Your digital marketing experts Melbourne Social Co can help!
Get in touch with us now to find out more:
e: [email protected] – P: 1300 386 165
Easy Ways to Leverage Your LinkedIn Account
One of the most popular social media platforms for business professionals is LinkedIn, as it’s a great way to showcase your experience and skills, search for jobs, seek new business opportunities and network with likeminded industry professionals.
If you have a LinkedIn account or are looking to create one, try these easy ways to leverage your profile now:
Raise your profile:
Your profile is at the centre of all the activity you do on LinkedIn so it’s vital to make sure it represents who you are and your experience in the best way possible. From using a professional photo, to creating an engaging and captivating summary and adding detailed experience sections, it’s important to dedicate some time to creating the best LinkedIn profile you possibly can.
Unsure how to raise your profile? Read our checklist for creating a standout LinkedIn profile.
Get recommendations:
A great way to make sure your LinkedIn profile stands out from the crowd is by utilising recommendations. These could be from customers, clients or past and current employers. Recommendations help to enhance your professional credibility and give your profile a point of difference.
Network!
LinkedIn is a social media platform after all, so make sure you network and connect with likeminded industry professionals that could even become potential clients or customers. You’ll be amazed at the people you’ll find on LinkedIn so don’t be afraid to connect with other industry professionals and join relevant industry groups.
Create a company page:
LinkedIn is one of the top social media marketing platforms for business to business marketing, so if you own a business you need to make sure your company has a page. Having a company page is a great way to share relevant news and updates on your business, provide useful information about your services or product and increase brand awareness through posting regular updates.
Post updates:
Regardless of your reason for being on LinkedIn, posting updates to your network helps to put your personal profile in front of the right people. By sharing relevant articles or even commenting on and liking other people’s updates, you can get your name out there, showcase your expertise in your field and be found by potential clients or customers (or employers!)
Do you need help leveraging your LinkedIn account to attract new clients or business? Here at Melbourne Social Co we are experts at creating and managing professional social media profiles.
Get in touch with us today to find out more:
e: [email protected] – P: 1300 386 165