This week we’ve interviewed a social media manager to get more on-the-ground tips of how to leverage social media to drive traffic. We’ve rounded this up into 3 quick tips to help you!
Using social media to drive traffic: 3 Quick Tips
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Lesser Known Social Media Platforms You Need to Know About
We’ve all heard of the social media giants. But what about the social media sites that are localised to a country, or two countries?
If you’re trying to break into international markets and are looking for new social media platforms to help you – this post is for you.
Reignite Your Social Media in 2019 – 3 Tips to Get Off to a Fresh Start
Happy New Year!
It can be tough constantly having to come up with new ways to be engaging online.
Especially if your business relies on social media as one of its key marketing channels.
So this January, we’ve made the hard work easier for you by coming up with 3 new ways to give your social media a bit of a jolt-start this 2019.
1. Use story-form social posts
We all love stories – and it’s not just up to writers to do them. Some of the best performing social posts of 2018 were ‘live-tweet’ stories, where audiences followed a situation as it unfolded in real time.
Now this might sound complicated. After all, what have you got to tell a story about?
Well, depending on your field, how about these ideas?
- Meeting with a guest for your show/someone that’s going to help your business
- A funny story from filming/recording/shooting/performing
- Something odd (and possibly business unrelated) that happened in your day
- Entertaining conversations
2. Focus on quality rather than quantity
We talked about the ‘white noise’ social media posts in 2018, and we definitely do not want to carry those through to 2019!
Instead of looking at social media as some kind of broadcast opportunity, focus instead on seeing it as an opportunity to hand-pick what you want to show off about yourself/your business/your brand.
In fact, studies have shown that having less content can promote higher engagement in each content piece.
3. Reach out to other people and do some partnerships
We all know that building own brand often includes networking, regardless of your industry. But how about partnering up with someone in order to take your social media to the next level this year?
Working with someone else in your field (or in the wider sphere of your industry) gets their audience in front of yours, and your audience in front of theirs. You could do this as a one-off (perhaps doing short-form video content, or an image series)
Have you got new ways that you’ll be spicing up your social media feeds this year? Let us know in the comments below!
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is a group of creatives with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping other creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact us any time for penguin chats via email:info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to our website: www.penguinintheroom.com
Don’t Let Your Social Media Die this Christmas!
I know what it’s like. Christmas is coming and you’re busy – you’re shopping, visiting family. Having one-too-many glasses of mulled wine. Your work mojo goes down the closer to Turkey Day we get – and sure enough, you’ll find yourself a bit less interested in doing the normal “admin” tasks, like keeping on top of your social media presence.
But it doesn’t have to be hard. If you’re smart, you can clock off on December 24th and not clock back in until January 1st. Whilst still keeping your social media accounts as lively and fresh as ever.
How?
5 Things You Need to Know about Facebook Messenger Adverts
Some of you may have already seen the little adverts popping up in between pictures of your friends on Facebook messenger.
Facebook messenger advertising has been around for a while, although dropping them in the middle of conversations is relatively new. Here’s what you need to know:
1. The ads will look similar to the ones you’re used to on Facebook
Adverts in Facebook messenger look nearly the same as the advertisements on the home page. They will have your page name, a short headline, an image, and then a button for people to click. That can take them straight through to ticket sales, album downloads, your website – whatever it is you’re trying to achieve.
Source: Facebook.com
2. You can make them personal
Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com
You can send your advert to anyone that’s interacted with your page before with a personal message, or a series of them. So let’s say for example they’ve watched your videos, followed your page, and now you want to get them to come to your show. You can set up a Facebook Ads campaign that lands straight into the messenger inbox, telling them all about your awesome act.
What’s more, the number of people who click through from messenger is massively bigger than your typical home-page ads.
3. You can make it super specific
Photo by Burst on Pexels.com
The normal Facebook advertisements allow you to narrow down your audience. You don’t want to shout out to 12 year olds and 60 year olds when you know your shows are best for 18-35.
You can also set it up based on location. That means you can target people local in London for your London shows, Dublin for your Dublin shows, and so on.
It gaves you way more freedom than traditional Facebook ads.
4. It’s great for engagement
Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com
Messenger is a taking app, right? And what better way to get to know your audience than by talking to them. When you pop an add into messenger, people are more likely to get talking to you. That’s great if you want to build your audience’s loyalty, or simply get them chatting. Because when they’re chatting to you, chances are they’re also chatting to their friends about you.
And we all know how powerful word of mouth advertising is!
5. There are free courses to help you get started
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Facebook advertising is daunting if you’ve never done it before. It feels like a million steps and you’re never quite sure whether you’ve chosen the right settings, or whether you’re taking a stab in the dark.
Facebook seems to realise this, too. Which is why they’ve got a bunch of free courses that you can take before you embark on any new advertising.
Super helpful if this is your first time using Facebook ads.
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is a group of creatives with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping other creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact us any time for penguin chats via email:info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to our website: www.penguinintheroom.com
5 Ways to Increase Your Facebook Page Engagement
Facebook is cracking down on unengaging, unloved Facebook Pages.
For some of the larger Pages, the update won’t negatively impact their reach, because their posts are already performing well enough to tick Facebook’s box of “encouraging meaningful discussions.”
But what about if you have a Page that performs averagely? Your fans, your customers, your clients like and comment and share, but not all the time.
How do you re-work your strategy and make sure your Page is still showing up in your fan’s News Feed?
Well, we’ve done the hard work for you. Here are 10 sure-fire ways to boost your Facebook Page engagement, and keep it that way, which will help you climb back up to the surface of the ocean that is the News Feed.
1. Make the most of Facebook Live
Facebook Live videos, on average, generate over 6 times the engagement levels than normal videos do. Wow right?!
Not only this, but people spend a lot more time watching Live videos than they do watching your standard, embedded videos.
For viewers watching from desktop computers, average viewing time for a Facebook Live video was a whopping 34.5 minutes (!) compared to standard video, which was just 2.6 minutes.
Not only this, but your Live video will still generate engagement even after it has ended. Over 40% of the engagement, to be exact.
So if you haven’t already: start making Facebook Live videos part of your Page’s strategy.
2. Make sure your fans are around when you’re posting
We know that scheduling can take the ‘social’ out of social media, but if done right it can really aid your social media stats and your engagement.
That’s because scheduling your content can help you drop it into your audience right when they’re all bored and looking for something to occupy their thumb for five minutes.
Posting at your ‘peak times’ will mean your posts are more likely to get the likes, shares, comments and reactions you deserve.
To figure out which time works best for you, you should consult Facebook’s Page Insights to track and analyze your engagement data.
3. Boost posts that get higher than average Organic engagement
Ah, organic engagement. Such a long way of saying: people seeing your stuff without you having to pay for it.
That’s what makes it great!
But! Pages miss a trick when they don’t piggyback on their own awesomeness and boost their high-performing organic posts.
Boosting them gives them a chance to reach an audience wider than those who already like your page, meaning more thumbs ups, more comments and more shares.
You don’t have to spend a fortune, either. Facebook can boost a post for as little as a tenner, which isn’t much in the grand scheme of the return on the investment that you’ll get.
4. Don’t underestimate the value of curated posts
Curated posts are posts by other people that you’re re-sharing with your audience. They could be videos, photos, gifs or anything in between.
In Buffer’s 2017 round-up, four of their five top performing posts were curated content, meaning they got nearly four-fifths of their top engagement by simply sharing the good work of others!
Of course this doesn’t mean you should hit ‘share’ on every hilarious cat video that finds its way into your personal feed.
You need to make sure the content is relevant for your audience and fit for your brand.
If it ticks those two boxes: fire away!
5. Share only content that is valuable to your fans
Your content needs to be the kind of stuff that your fans see and want to tout around.
In Hootsuite’s Content Marketing 101 Guide, they recommend you follow these five steps in ensuring your content is awesome, and I have to say, they cover off all the boxes:
- It is helpful to the audience.
- It is rooted in specific, tangible, and real customer problems.
- It delivers on its promise.
- Is it actionable. (Include a link to your upcoming show/your new product/your beautiful face)
- You are proud to share it. Is it something you’d share with your friends?
Now, just make sure you’re not making these 5 Mistakes and your brand new facebook plan is ready to go!
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is a group of creatives with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping other creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact us any time for penguin chats via email:info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to our website: www.penguinintheroom.com
Are You Ready For Facebook’s Pages Update?
Facebook announced 7 days ago what we’ve all been expecting for a long time: that Pages will be shown less to their users in the News Feed and instead their friends and family will be prioritized.
Adam Mosseri, who is Head of News Feed at Facebook, said:
With this update, we will prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people.
We will also prioritize posts from friends and family over public content, consistent with our News Feed values.
If you’re one of the many Freelancers or independent businesses that benefit from referral traffic or even sales through your Facebook Page, then you need to pay attention.
Will the update negatively affect my reach?
The answer to this is: probably.
Facebook has claimed it’ll only negatively effect pages that don’t consistently post content that their followers want to engage with. They’ve said:
Pages making posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an effect.
If you’re one of the pages that consistently drives good reach – which means getting lots of tags or comments from your users, then the update won’t cause you so much of a problem.
If however you are like most independent business and your engagement is hit and miss, you may want to start working on your content to get the best engagement out of it. Check back soon for a post on this.
How will I know if my Page is still showing in the News Feed?
Pages will be prioritised based on how many posts ‘generate a conversation’.
This could be anything from friends debating in your comments to people tagging each other in them.
Facebook wants to be seen as a place that “brings people closer together and build relationships” and they’ve put that at the heart of their News Feed update.
The algorithm will change to prioritise the types of posts people typically interact with. So if you have a core set of die-hard, loyal fans who comment on everything you do, chances are high they’ll continue to do so.
Also, people who’ve selected ‘See First’ for your page will continue to see your Page’s posts at the top of their News Feed.
If you don’t know what this is, it’s a handy feature Facebook added so people can keep track of their favourite Pages by having their posts always stuck to the top of their News Feed.
It might also spell an end for click-bait
Facebook has categorically said it will demote any content that’s deemed as:
“engagement-bait” to goad people into commenting on posts
This is because Facebook doesn’t think these types of posts constitute a “meaningful interaction.”
How do I make sure people can still see my Page?
The best way, it seems, to make sure your Page stats don’t suffer too badly is by making sure your Page is ticking those crucial Facebook boxes.
These are:
- Bringing people together by encouraging conversations
- Posting content that inspires ‘back and forth’ discussion
- Posting content that people want to share and react to
Facebook has a good tip in their press release as well: Live videos often get six times as many interactions as regular videos.
Facebook suggests that Pages that post more Live videos will tend to be the Pages getting more engagement, and therefore the Pages more likely to keep their spots in their customer’s News Feeds.
Check back for our next post on how to give your Facebook Page an engagement check-up and stop the negative effects of the update.
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is a group of creatives with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping other creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact us any time for penguin chats via email:info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to our website: www.penguinintheroom.com
5 Social Media Tools That Will Save Your Life
Social media is a black hole for time.
You can spend hours pouring over the same 10 videos and you barely even notice the clock ticking.
When it comes to running your own social media, however, time is a huge factor. Because the more time you spend on social media, the less time you’re spending actually doing what you do (unless you’re a social media maven. You do you.)
Given that most creatives are time poor, so we’ve pulled together a list of 10 social media tools that will save you time and effort. Meaning you don’t have to spend your life flicking between apps. Yippee!
The best bit is… they’re all free!
Buffer
Buffer is an awesome scheduling tool that allows you to post Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts at a later date.
With the free version you can link up to 3 accounts and schedule up to 10 pieces of content.
There’s also a handy content inbox where you can follow your favourite blogs (*cough*) and schedule to share their content online with a simple click. You can also link your own blog and re-share old content as well as broadcasting new content.
Audiense
Audiense figures out when the best time for you to Tweet is. What’s even cooler is that it then links up to Buffer, and gives you a handy schedule.
This means you know all of your planned tweets are getting sent at exactly the best time for people to like, comments and share them.
Not only this, but it lets you search for people to follow (to grow your community) and also tells you who isn’t following you back (meanies.)
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is great if you’ve got loads of different accounts and you want to keep them all in one handy place.
It offers the same service as Buffer but also includes a handy reply function – meaning you can keep track of all your conversations, all in one place!
Hootsuite also allows you to target subsets for channels like your Facebook page.
Social Mention
Ever wondered what people say about you online? Googling is so 2014 – you need Social Mention. It’s a eal-time platform that searches across the whole of the social interweb and organising it into a handy list for you. Influence is measured by Strength, Sentiment, Passion and Reach.
Not only this, it gives you a score for positive vs negative sentiment and your overall influence.
Pretty great if you’re trying to manage your brand or someone else’s.
Iconosquare
You know that 31 people liked the picture of your breakfast. But do you know how many more likes you when you use Mayfair, instead of Nashville?
Iconosquare delves deeper than your ex into your instagram and analyses your posts, measuring the type of post vs the level of engagement.
If you’re monetising Instagram or even just using it to help build brand/personal awareness, this is one for you.
Now you’re fully armed – fly, my social media mavens, fly! (And let us know if you think we’ve missed anything.)
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is a group of creatives with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping other creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact us any time for penguin chats via email: info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to our website: www.penguinintheroom.com
5 Mistakes You’re Probably Making on Social Media
Social media. We know the deal here, right? Some tweets. Some likes. A few dozen comments and a gif for good measure.
It’s not a top secret recipe.
And yet – nearly everyone is guilty of the following social media fails. How many do you clock up?
1. Selling on purpose
We all have something we want to sell. Whether it’s tickets to our next show or even just that jumper you bought off Ebay months ago and have never worn, we’re used to seeing sales messages on social media.
If you’re using social to build awareness of yourself and your brand however, you need to try and avoid the hard sell.
Why?
Because people don’t like following accounts where they think they will get sold to all the time. It’s not fun for them (I mean, how passionate can someone be about a 20% discount on lawnmowers? Hmm?
2. Not secret selling
So here’s the secret. You sell. But you do it in a more roundabout way with some personality, fun and intrigue thrown in for good measure. Have a look at these two tweets:
Guys! Please buy tickets and come and support me on stage, www.ticketlink.com, it would be great to see you all.
Vs.
First dress rehearsal today! How’s my makeup looking for [insert production name]? http://www.ticketlink.com *With relevant image attached*
Which of those two tweets would you be more likely to click on?
The second one, right?!
Show us why we should come and see your show rather than ordering us to buy tickets!
3. Information broadcasting
This is a fancy way of saying ‘talking at people all the time on social media and never actually having a conversation with them.’
This happens when you view social media as a checkbox exercise. You log on, post your tweet, log back off and continue with your day/week/year. Wrong! You’ve just put something out into the world. If Sally from Rochester has decided to reply to you with a salsa dance emoji, then you need to engage with Sally (not salsa-ing, well maybe if that’s what you enjoy) and at least say thanks for the interaction.
Remember, you’re here to be social with people, not just yell at them from the safe confines of your laptop.
4. Ignoring the wider conversation
So back to Sally from Rochester, you need to engage in other conversations as well, not just the ones about you.
Get involved in topics you’re interested in (and that are on brand), but also show interest in other people and events in your industry. Being an active member of the wider social community will mean you get exposed (not like that) to new people, who in turn will get to find out about you. Win!
5. Posting natively (ohhh some social media jargon)
This is a mistake people make especially with Twitter.
‘Posting natively’ means logging onto twitter, clicking ‘write tweet’ and then typing it out there and then and clicking ‘tweet’.
“But how else would I post?” I hear you ask! There are a bunch of social media schedulers (watch out for the post on this) and tools that make it a lot faster for you to post online with the added bonus of being able to track all the good clicks and comments you get. Plus you can post on more than one site at the same time and view it all in the same window.
Magical huh?
So those are our top 5 social fails. How many did you get?
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is a group of creatives with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping other creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact us any time for penguin chats via email: info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to our website: www.penguinintheroom.com
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